Hebrews chapter two, verses one to four, and chapter three, verse seven, through chapter four, verse 13. This is God's word. Therefore we must pay much 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 of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Chapter three, verse seven. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. On the day of retesting in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years, therefore I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Take care, brothers. lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said today, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For you who were those who heard and yet rebelled, was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that They would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient. So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed entered at rest, as he has said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way. God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again in this passage he said, they shall not enter my rest. Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, today, saying through David, so long afterwards, and the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active. sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and of the spirit, of joints and of marrow and discerning of thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." May God bless to us this reading of his word. The writer of the Hebrews is writing here to Christian men and women. Jews who were converted. Jews who had taken the decision by the grace of God to place their trust for their eternal salvation in Jesus Christ. But they were in difficulties. They were in difficulties because their expectations had not been realized. They had thought that many of their contemporaries and compatriots in the Jewish world would like them come to believe in Jesus Christ. Secondly, they anticipated and expected that Jesus Christ would return and return probably within their lifetime. And thirdly, they believed and anticipated and expected that the return of Jesus Christ would then usher in a whole new world order. That he would establish his kingdom, that he would rule, that they would be citizens of this new commonwealth, and that life would be simple straightforward. And now some decades later none of those three expectations had been realized. Many and their families were still unbelievers. Jesus Christ had not returned Therefore, his new kingdom had not been ushered in. In fact, the Roman authorities seemed to be growing in their power and their extent of influence. And so these ordinary men and women, struggling also with the fact that the church seemed to be becoming more filled with Gentiles than with Jews, Gentiles whom they would love, but Gentiles who brought with them a lifestyle and a way of living that was contrary to the Jewish way of living and a way of life that really called into question many of the things that the Jews held dear. So the Jews who were Christians were really struggling. It wasn't happening. What they dreamed for was not coming to bear. And the fact that the Gentiles were now the largest grouping within the church, that was really, really difficult for them to accept. Opposition from people in their family, opposition from people in their culture, opposition in their workplace. It was just becoming too much. And they were thinking of turning their back on Christianity and going back to Judaism and all that Judaism offered them in terms of physical, visible, vocal and deeply sensory religion. They were thinking about going back to their old family way of traditional living. They were thinking of setting aside their expectations and their hopes that didn't seem as if they were ever going to be realized and going back to the old patterns, the old ways. The writer of the Hebrews is writing here with one simple solitary purpose in mind, and that is to say to them, take great care. Give very, very serious thought to what you're considering doing. He sees already the neglect and the evidence of neglect in their life beginning. We looked at it last Lord's Day, and I used the illustration of a boat being tied up at a mooring that gradually drifts from that mooring. Over time, imperceptibly, the knot around the mooring gives way. And without any great fuss or any great deal of ado, that boat that was originally tied up supposedly secure to the mooring in the harbor, finds itself released from that mooring and begins to drift with the ebb of the tide out into the sea and all the dangers that are there awaiting it. And he speaks to them in chapter 2 verse 1 of this threat of this drift taking place in their lives. a real and imminent threat and we know from Hebrews chapter 10 that there were already people in the fellowship who were neglecting coming to the public place of worship. And why that was so serious was because of the fact that this drift begins, as we considered at length last Lord's Day morning, with the hearing of the Word of God. This drift begins begins when we stop listening to God's Word, whether we're reading it on our own, whether we're hearing it preached on the Sabbath day, or whether we're hearing it sung in our presence. It all has to do with our relationship with God and His Word. And when we disengage from God and his word, then we are in drift mode. And when we're on drift mode, then we are moving towards neglect mode. And when we reach neglect mode, then we are in serious, serious peril. And he speaks of the reason why this peril is so serious. Why it's not just a light thing. He speaks of it being serious because of the consequences that follow this neglect. The journey of the neglect begins with the mishearing of God's word and the non-hearing of God's word, the feeling simply to listen. The consequences of that journey gathering peace he speaks of in the second verse he says for since the message declared by the angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution you see you cannot listen to the Word of God receive the Word of God and then deny the Word of God either by what you think or what you do or what you say and not suffer the consequences. It's one of the things that Christians repeatedly listen to Satan about. Our sinful hearts tell us there isn't any consequence. There isn't a consequence. Or if there is a consequence, it's not all that serious. And if there is a consequence, it's not all that serious. You've experienced it before, you've managed it before, you've survived it before, so it won't really matter. And if it's not all that serious and you've experienced it before and you've managed it before, well, the last resort is you can always go to God and ask forgiveness and it's sorted. And so we are lulled into this unreality, this lie, that it doesn't really matter when we sin. It doesn't matter. It's not important. If there is a consequence, we can handle it. And if we can't handle it, we just take it to God and he'll sort it out. And so what happens is that we don't actually stop and consider the real seriousness to us, to those who we know and love of our sin. We don't stop and think about that. And we saw last Lord's Day how that man went out to gather sticks on the Sabbath day, a very, very simple thing. gather sticks to provide heat for his family, to provide fire for the baking of bread, whatever the object was. And the people gathered him into the fellowship and they brought him and they held him until they asked God what they should do with him. And God said to them, take him out and stone him and put him to death. And we read that and we thought, is that not a very serious consequence simply for the gathering of a few sticks? Is that not going over the top? And I could have read you other accounts. I could have read you the account of Achan and his sin when the people of God went to enter into the promised land in the book of Joshua. And there they entered that land. And God said to them, when you defeat the city, make sure that when you come out of the city, you don't take any of the silver and gold of the people. Because you're not going to take the silver and gold and rely on that. You will rely on me, you will rely on my word and I will provide for you. And in Joshua chapter 1, we read how that Achan does deny what God told him to do and he takes something for himself. He takes that which he knows he shouldn't take. And when he takes that, he knows that he shouldn't have taken it. And what happens is that then when they seek to go in and take the next city, then there is defeat. And the defeat is brought about by the fact that Achan has sinned. What has he sinned in doing? What is the great sin that Achan has committed? What is the terrible thing that Achan has done? Achan has simply taken a few pieces of silver from the city that was destroyed in the fall of Jericho. That's all he's done. It's not anything all that astonishing and serious that he's done. It was hardly worth anything, let alone for him, and yet the whole scheme of all the whole tribe of Israel and all the nations, and the people had gone up into Ai, and they had gone up and they'd been defeated, and Joshua's on his knees, and Joshua's tearing his clothes, and he falls before the Lord, and he cries out to God and says to God, alas, oh Lord God, why have you brought us, this people over the Jordan at this time, to give us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? Would we have been content to dwell in the Jordan? O Lord, what can I say when the Israel has turned their backs before their enemies? Joshua is pleading with God, saying, God, why have you destroyed us? There is Joshua pleading before God, ripping his clothes off his back, crying to God. Why is this happening? Why is this happening? And what does God say to Joshua? Get up, get up, get off. your face. And he says, Israel has sinned. They have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them. What was the great transgression that had been happened? They have taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. And you would think that this was something that the whole of Israel had done, that every family in Israel had gone out and disregarded what God had said and totally denied what God had told them to do. Gone into Jericho and filled their rucksacks and brought it back out. And here God is expressing his anger to Joshua, get up, get up. The reason why you've been defeated in Ai is because Israel has sinned. God tells him what to do. He says, there are devoted things in your midst to Israel. You can't stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you. In the morning, therefore, you'll be brought near by your tribes, and the tribe that the Lord takes by lot shall come by clans, and the clan that the Lord takes shall come near by households, and the household the Lord takes shall come near man by man. And he who is taken with the devoted things shall be burned with fire, and he and all that he has because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he has done an outrageous thing in Israel. One man, One single man out of all the tribes of Israel had gone and taken a few bits and pieces of silver, that's all he'd done, that were devoted to idols, and he'd brought them home and he'd hidden them. And God says, you will not go forward into this land until you deal with this one single man. You think God's serious about sin? What'd they do? They brought them out, tribe by tribe, clan by clan, family by family, household by household, man by man. Picture that scene as they're all brought out and that man is identified. Joshua said to Achan, my son, give glory to the Lord of Israel and give praise, and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me. Today I have truly sinned against the Lord God of Israel and this is what I've done. I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar to 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels and I coveted them and took them and see they are hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath. Achan, his family, and all that he owned, sons, daughters, oxen, everything he had, were stoned to death and then burned and covered with stones. What the writer of the Hebrews is saying to these people, that every transgression, every disobedience received a just retribution in the past. He says, you know it. You know these stories. How then, how then do you expect if you neglect such great salvation that has been attested to by the Holy Spirit has been seen by men, has been believed on in the world, these signs and wonders of the power of God, these accurate, first-hand accounts of what God has done, How can you, if you turn your back on this truth which has been declared by none other than Jesus Christ himself, it was declared at first by the Lord, how can you think that you will escape if you deny such a great salvation that has been manifested both by word and wonder through the power of God the Holy Spirit that was proclaimed by none other than the Lord, and he has spoken to him who the Lord is, the Lord whose throne is forever, the Lord whose scepter is of righteousness, the Lord who has been anointed by God, the Lord who laid the foundations of the earth in the beginning, the heavens are the works of the hands of the Lord. They perish, but you remain. These are the works of the Lord, the Son of God, who proclaims this gospel to you," he's saying. How do you think, if they in the Old Testament dispensation receive such retribution for turning their back on the words of God, how do you think that you will fare if you turn your backs now on the salvation that has been revealed through the work and word of Jesus Christ? And some of you are sitting here this morning, and you've sat in this building, and you've listened to the word preached, the truth of the gospel, and you're drifting. You're drifting. Be honest with yourself. Be honest with yourself. You don't have to be honest with me. It's not me you have to deal with. It's God you deal with. And the root of that drift is that you're not listening to the Word of God. You're not reading it, you're not hearing it, you're not seeking to understand it. Do you understand the peril you're in? Do you really, really get it? That you are hanging by a thread, and that if you fall into the hands of the living God, Do you actually think that he will deal differently with you than what he dealt with that Sabbath-breaker or Achan? What leads you to think that you are in some way peculiar and special, that you can hear, receive, say you own the Word of God, say you own faith in Jesus Christ, and then turn around and deny it? and think that there will be no consequence. What planet are you actually living on? Is it the case, because he comes in in the third chapter to speak of those who have heard the word, who believe the word according to what they said, and yet their lives manifest something different. He speaks, and he quotes this, Psalm 95. And in Psalm 95, there is this very, very clear call that there is not to be a hardening of the heart. He's writing here, because this Psalm is quoted, he's writing here to people, the Psalmist is writing to people, who had come out of Egypt. He's writing to people who had sprinkled the blood of the lamb on the doorpost in the lentil frame. He's speaking here to people in this psalm that he's quoting in verses 8, 9, and 10, and 11, that we sang together in Psalm 95. He's talking here to people who had taken gifts from the Egyptians on the night that they left Egypt. He's talking to people who had followed the way of Moses through the Red Sea. He's talking to people who then had walked with Moses towards the promised land. He's talking to people who had received protection from the Amalekites by the hand of God. He's talking to people who had received provision from God. He's talking to people who God had protected and God had blessed and God had nurtured. He's talking to people who said, we are of the household of God. But he's also talking to people who, when they reach the border of the promised land, faced into it and said, we're not going. And he says the reason why they didn't go, verse 12, was because of their unbelieving hearts. Because they hardened their hearts, verse 16. They heard and they rebelled. Who rebelled? Those who left Egypt with Moses. People said they believed in God. People did acts that manifest that they believed in God. People did amazing and astonishing things on the basis of their professed belief in God. And yet when it came to fulfill that one thing that God had promised an oath to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they refused to do it. And God says the reason they refused to do it was because they did not believe him. They did not believe that he would go in and he would enable them to destroy the giants, that he would go in with them and enable them to take that land portion by portion, portion by portion, portion by portion. They looked at the land and they saw the prosperity of it. They saw the wealth and the fruit that was brought back, but they were willing to accept, you see, the statements of the spies who said that we cannot go in and take it. And there, you see, is the nub of the whole issue. Because their belief, ultimately, was not a belief that was genuinely founded in the promises of God. Their belief was founded in a misappropriated and a misunderstanding of who they were as the people of God. And I put it to you this morning, as you sit in this building, and as you hear God's Word to you, and you have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ come to you, You've heard it with clarity. The message has been proclaimed to you, not with the words of man, but with the words of God. You understand the doctrine of sin. You've been told that you're a sinner. You've been told about the consequences of your sin. You've been told that the reality is that if you die in your sin, you'll experience eternal separation from God and the punishment of God for all eternity. And you, at some point in your life, have come and said, listen, I believe in Jesus. I believe that Jesus died for me. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I will walk in His ways. You sang the Psalms. I love the Lord because He heard my supplicating plea. I, while I live, will call on Him who bowed His ear to me. The cords of death surrounded me, encompassed me around. They took the hold of my life and brought me down to the grave. But then Jehovah called me by his mercy and his grace, and I now declare that I will live and walk with him. You've sang that. But you're drifting. You're drifting. You're neglecting. You may be physically here, but you're not here in your heart. You may be physically here, but you're not here in your head. You're not listening to what God's saying to you week by week from his word. You're not on fire for God. You're not aflame with a passion for God. Maybe you need to ask yourself, have I truly been converted? Have I genuinely been converted? There are many people who trod out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, experienced the protecting hand of God's name, the Amalekites, came up to the corner of the land that God had promised Noth, saying, we believe with all our heart in God. We have seen the 10 plagues. We have walked through the Red Sea. We believe in him. If you'd have stopped them in the street that day, they'd have said, of course I believe in God. When God says, write up and go, what do they say? No, not yet. Not yet. What does God say that not yet is? A little lack of faith? What does God say that not yet is? He says, unbelief. Unbelief. They didn't believe. And you've got to ask yourself, it's too serious. It's too serious a thing not to ask yourself the question, is it the case that I have truly never genuinely been converted? That I genuinely don't believe in Jesus Christ? Because if I believed in Jesus Christ, I wouldn't have to worry about drifting. Listen, there are seasons in our lives when we all blow a bit hotter and a bit colder than others. Every one of us does. But the general trend is that we're always going to blow hotter. That's the reality of the Christian life. God has not brought us and saved us from death to bring us into life, that we continue to be married in sin and marred in sin. We're to put sin to death. We're to destroy sin. And what the writer writes here to them says, that we're to enter into the rest that still stands. There is a rest. There's a rest that's to be experienced. But so rest, it can't be experienced by the disobedient. To whom did he swear that they would not enter the rest? But to those who were disobedient. And so we say that they were unable to enter God's rest. Why? Because of their unbelief. Their unbelief. They at root didn't believe. They didn't believe. And because he didn't believe, God says, you'll never enter my rest. You'll never enter my rest. Doesn't care what you say, don't care what you do, but because you will not bend a knee and you will not seek God with all your heart, soul, and mind. You will not seek him with all your heart, soul, and mind. You will not submit entirely to him as Lord in your life. You still want to hold on to elements yourself. You still want to decide when you're going to pick and when you're going to choose and when you're going to engage and when you're not going to engage. My friend, I tell you this morning, you cannot pick and choose when you're going to engage with God and when you're not going to engage with Him. when it suits you to do it, and when it doesn't suit you to do it. The reality is, you either believe in Jesus Christ, you believe in the truth of the gospel, you bend the knee to His sovereign authority, by grace you place your trust in Jesus Christ, and you throw yourself upon Him entirely. Like that wee guy that we heard in France. Fourteen year old boy. There he is, with all his mates. You're all coming tomorrow to play in the tournament, aren't you? He's not going home to a mammy and a daddy we heard who were going to say to him, son, you shouldn't have done that. He doesn't, his people that he's living with don't care whether he did it or not. He probably thought if he'd have told them, they would have laughed at him if he'd have said, I'm not playing tomorrow. Who would have cared? The guy that he cuts the hair off once a month? Well, so what? Why did he do that? Why did he go up to the coach at the end of the time and say, I am not going to do this. Why did he do it? Because he loves God and he's given his life to Jesus Christ. That's why he did it. He didn't care about anybody else. He didn't care what the rest of the team would think. He didn't care what the coach would think. He didn't care about what the people he would live with would say. He didn't care and think, I must do this because I cut Andrew's hair once a month and he might be sorry that I might play a football match on a Sunday. That wasn't going through his head. It was because he knew, because he had embraced the love of Jesus Christ in his heart, because he knows the things of God in his life. Even at the age of 14, 14 years of age, He believes in it. He believes it's real. Because he believes it's real, he puts his foot in the right place. He makes the right decision. Because it's real to him. Why are you making excuses? Why are you making excuses? You're making excuses because you don't genuinely believe. Face the reality. Be honest with yourself. Be honest with yourself. Why do you make the excuses? It's because you don't actually believe. You don't believe it. You don't believe it. You don't actually believe it, do you? Do you know what? Today, today you can believe it because repeatedly in that passage we read this refrain Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion. He says it in verse 7, 8. He says it in verse 15. He says it in verse 7 of chapter 4. He's repeatedly saying it. Today, if you hear the voice of Jesus speaking to you now, with clarity and with power, if you hear him speaking to you now, Do not harden your heart. Whatever you do, ask God the Holy Spirit to soften your heart, to soften it. And put an end to the pretense. Put an end to the game playing. Come with humility and say to him, I want to believe in this great gospel. attested to and declared by the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to own this gospel. I want to believe in Jesus Christ. I want to walk truly as a Christian. I want the love of God to come to my heart and to bring me into a new and living reconciled relationship with him that's real. I want to be impassioned with the things of God. I want to have God as a single most important priority in my life. I don't want to keep making excuses to myself. I want him. I want Jesus in my life. And if the spirit of God speaks to you now, do not recoil. Do not draw back. For there is no other road. There is no other road. There is only the way of eternal damnation. Are you in drift? Christian, stop and think. Stop and think. Lay hold of this unbeliever who's sitting here thinking you're all right. Listen to his voice. It is pure. It is clear. It is honest. It is to be received. It is to be believed on. It is the truth. Do not allow the enemy to snatch away what he's speaking to you at this present moment in time by filling your head with a lot of lies. Send him away. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Amen.