Our Old Covenant reading for this evening is taken from the book of the Psalms. Psalm 119 beginning at verse 41. We'll be reading through verse 48 this evening. The word of the Lord. Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise. Then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules. I will keep your law continually, forever and ever, and I shall walk in a wide place For I have sought your precepts. I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame. For I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. Here endeth the Old Covenant reading. The New Covenant reading is taken from the letter to the Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 2 beginning at verse 1. We'll be reading through verse 4 this evening. The Word of our God. 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 by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Here endeth the New Covenant reading. Please keep your place here in God's Word as this will be the primary portion of scripture for our evening sermon. We receive all sorts of warnings in life, some we dismiss, some we compromise on, and others we take with utmost seriousness. Why would we dismiss a warning? Well, suppose you were walking up to a lake, planning to go ice skating, and you see a sign that says, warning, thin ice. Now that might convince you not to take the risk of going out onto the pond. But if you've been up to that lake in July to go fishing, when it was 88 degrees outside, and that sign was still there saying, warning thin ice, you would realize that the sign was simply put up because someone wanted to reduce their legal liability, or it was put up, you know, two years ago and just left there, and it wasn't actually someone warning you, but there was thin ice. And so if you tested the ice and found that it was thick, you might quite reasonably ignore that warning. There are other types of warnings that we compromise on. For example, we are all bombarded in this day with warnings about eating a healthy diet. And we understand, because we have a grasp of science and the basics of what's going on, that that's an important warning. It's true. And yet we don't take it all the way to the conclusion that we're only going to eat an absolutely healthy diet that's designed to optimize our health. So nobody in this room is going to try to live on Twinkies and Diet Coke. On the other hand, I really doubt that any of you are saying, I am only going to eat exactly what is going to provide me the optimal nutrition. We compromise because we realize that in life there are trade-offs. And one of those trade-offs is we like to celebrate and enjoy certain things, and those celebrations can be bound up with the foods that we eat. Well, we're not completely ignoring the warning, but we're willing to say, if someone comes up to us and asks, don't you want to live longer? We're willing to say, not if I have to rob all the life out of the present. And so we compromise. And yet there are other warnings we take with absolute utmost seriousness. If you're driving along and you see a sign that says, bridge out ahead, not one of you says, hey, you only live once. And you don't go, you know what, that could be an old sign. Let's just hit the gas. And I trust that at least in this room, if there's a major flood going on and you hear those warnings about not driving through running water in your car, that all of you would take that warning to heart. Although, strangely enough, every time there's a significant storm with meaningful flooding, we see people whose cars have gotten washed down the river. Because when they tried to drive through what they were hoping was four inches of water, it turned out to be four feet deep. Well, tonight we're listening to a deadly serious warning And this warning comes to us from an utterly infallible source, and from someone who loves us with an everlasting love. God himself, the Holy Spirit, is warning us of the danger of drifting away. I want you to realize that this is a warning given to people who are gathering for worship in the church. This is not a warning to be broadcast on the radio for people out there in the world. This is a warning that the Holy Spirit is giving to us. The Holy Spirit is warning us of the danger of drifting away by neglecting the great salvation that has been accomplished in Jesus Christ. This is one warning that we need to take to heart and that we need to act on. We're going to look at this warning under three main headings this evening. First, don't drift. Second, how shall we escape? And third, how firm a foundation? Those are pretty simple, but I want to give them to you again so you know where we're going this evening. First, don't drift. Second, how shall we escape? And third, How firm a foundation. We begin with the chief point of the entire passage. The imperative coming to us from God. Don't drift. Don't drift away from the glorious message that you have heard. Verse one. Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. The first chapter of Hebrews, which is the basis for this imperative, focuses on how exceedingly great Jesus is. The Old Testament prophets were good. The revelation that we have received through the Son is better. The Levitical priesthood was good. The priesthood of Jesus Christ is exceedingly better. Indeed, he has already cleansed us from our sins. The Davidic kingship was good. The universal and never-ending kingship of Jesus Christ is dramatically better, for he is the heir of all things. And Hebrews tells us he has already sat down on the throne of the universe at the right hand of the majesty on high. Furthermore, the author of Hebrews has made clear that Jesus is far above even the most exalted angels, because all things were made by him and for him. He is the creator of all things. And God the Father, speaking to the Son, has addressed him as God. So let me ask you what's almost a blasphemous question to raise. So what? Jesus is better, but so what? What are you supposed to do with that? What's the point of the detailed arguments from chapter one that we have studied together over the past two weeks? And the answer is straightforward. The letter of Hebrews is being written to a church made up primarily of Jewish Christians who are being tempted to abandon the Christian church to go back into Judaism. And the author of Hebrews is asking one fundamental question in chapter one. Why would you abandon Christ, who is so much better in an attempt to return to that which was merely good. Chapter two begins with the word, therefore, or on account of this. That is, tonight's passage is an application drawn from everything that we learned in the first chapter of Hebrews. It's an application that is just as direct and as plain as could be. In light of that, how much better Christ is, You need to stay fixed on the gospel with complete devotion for the consequences of drifting away are unspeakably tragic. The key word in this first verse is the word drift. Very few people suddenly lurch from active committed involvement in the local church to simply abandoning everything all at once. What happens is, they stop focusing on Christ, they stop focusing on the gospel, and they gradually begin to drift. This happens because they assume the gospel, and then they end up taking the gospel for granted. Let me give you an analogy. Perhaps you've had this experience swimming, particularly if you're swimming in the ocean. You're out there playing around in the surf. You're just enjoying yourself. You're relaxing. You're on vacation. It's not a big deal. You're not worried about anything. Suddenly, you realize you've moved down the shore. The vacation home you're staying at used to be there, and now it's way over there. And you didn't even pay any attention to it at all. The tide just carried you along while you focused on other things. Now, thankfully, most of the time, that sort of experience of drifting is not particularly dangerous. But it can be. Way back when I was a student at the Naval Academy, I was down in Virginia Beach with a bunch of my classmates. We were having a crash course introduction to surface warfare. And during a break, we went swimming. And I was just out there enjoying the ocean. I was a very good swimmer since I was a young kid, not a carer in the world. And suddenly I noticed I was all by myself. There was no one swimming around me. And I looked and I saw this big sign, but I couldn't read it because it was only painted on the other side. I'm looking at the back of the sign. And then I remembered what it said. It said, live fire area. Warning, stay out. Now thankfully, nobody shot me. I live to become your pastor. But it actually is an illustration of the fact how we can drift into a dangerous situation simply by not focusing on something that was actually very important. This is how spiritual decline typically happens as well. It starts not with a radical break, but simply by drifting. As one anonymous author put it, Like a small boat untethered from its moorings, gradually carried away by gentle currents, Christians can find themselves spiritually adrift without ever consciously choosing to abandon their faith. See, drift happens incrementally. It's the missed prayer times. the skipped corporate worship, the gradual accommodation to worldly thinking. Before you know it, you've traveled miles from your spiritual starting point, but you've moved slowly enough to never jar your own conscience. Beloved, please make sure this is not you. Please make sure that the anchor of your life is bound up in Jesus Christ. that he's not simply the assumed center of your life, but he's the actual pulsating center of your thoughts and your hopes. How do we avoid drifting? Verse one tells us what we must do. We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard. This is not something that might be helpful. This is not an extra step for those who want to become super saints. This is a word to every single one of you as people who are Christians, disciples of Jesus Christ. We, all of us, must pay more careful attention to what we have already heard. Paying attention necessarily means attending regularly to the means of grace. principally the word of God, the sacraments, and prayer. But the implication is that we attend to the means of grace in a particular way. We don't just go through the motions. We don't just simply open up our Bible in the morning and say, I've got to read a couple paragraphs, check, forgot what I read, doesn't have any impact on my life. That's not what paying closer attention to what we've heard means. We need to treat the person and work of Jesus Christ as the most valuable reality that there is, because he is. As we contemplate and celebrate the gospel, we must routinely seek to have the truth of who Christ is and what he has done reform the way that we are living our lives. This is not an intellectual study where we're just stacking up knowledge. We're seeking to follow Jesus. The risk for us is that familiarity really can breed a type of contempt, or at least indifference to the truths that were once the pulsating center of our thinking. The most basic truths in Christianity are found not in complex theology books. They're found in the creeds and the catechisms of the church. This is where we say, this is basic Christianity that we need to hand on to the next generation intact. And because most of you here this evening have been Christians for an extended period of time and you've studied these things, you could easily start thinking, I know all that. I know all that. I'm not going to worry about it. Kind of become bored with basic Christianity. And so I ask you. Do these truths no longer excite you because you have already learned them? Have you lost the excitement of meditating on the best known portions of God's word? The best known portions of God's word because they are so central to God revealing himself to us in Jesus Christ. Martin Luther writes this, even if a person's knowledge of the catechism were perfect, Yet it is highly profitable and fruitful daily to read it and make it the subject of meditation and conversation. In such reading, conversation, and meditation of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is present and bestows ever and new and greater light and fervor. Nothing is so effectual against the devil, the world, the flesh, and all evil thoughts as to occupy oneself with the Word of God. Talk about it. Meditate on it. You will never offer up any incense or other savor more potent against the devil than to occupy yourself with God's commandments and words and to speak, sing, and meditate upon them. God's Word is not some empty tale, but the power of God which gives us immeasurable strength, comfort, and hope. Beloved, you have to realize that Luther's not only right here, he's not just talking about learning new things. I really don't have Ezekiel down. I'm very excited about reading Ezekiel 39. That's great. But Luther is saying, you know, Psalm 23, you've said it a hundred times in your life. Take some time to meditate upon it today and talk to your neighbor and bring them comfort about the good shepherd. These well-known truths need to keep being stirred up in us. We need to pay more close attention to hearing God's word than we ever have before. As I say, Luther is right. But the Word of God only gives us immeasurable strength, comfort, and hope when we carefully attend to it and seek to be transformed by what the Lord is teaching us. So here's a pointed question that all of us need to ask ourselves. Every Christian on Earth should ask themselves this. When you read the Bible, Do you simply read it to learn something new, or do you seek the Holy Spirit's help in applying what you are learning to your life? Well, when I put it like that, the answer's obvious. The goal is not simply storing up facts. We're not trying to win on a game of Bible Jeopardy. We're trying to be transformed in the likeness of Christ and to glorify and enjoy him forever. As Alistair Begg likes to remind us, the learning is for living. Paying closer attention to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ involves loving the truth, trusting the truth, and therefore, by the grace of God, having the revelation shape our lives. The warning is, don't drift. The solution is cling to Jesus Christ. Cling to Christ with confidence and joy. Remember, this is not a self-help project. Christ himself is clinging to you, and the triune God has filled you with the Holy Spirit in order for you to do this very thing. And yet, one of the most fundamental aspects of clinging to Christ is listening attentively to what our Lord has to say. Many of you have heard me say this before, but if you're talking with people, I do this with young people that are getting married, but sometimes with older people that are struggling in some ways in their relationships, and you ask, How do you communicate to your spouse that you love them? It is interesting that as Americans, who are mostly a pretty type A lot out there, we naturally think of, what can I do? What can I say? But actually, the most valuable thing that most of you can do to express your love is to listen. It is a profound thing to have someone carefully listen to you simply to understand you. But that's also true with your relationship with God. You worship God by listening to him so that you understand him. God is calling us to do that very thing. This brings us to a rather pointed question from the author of Hebrews. How shall we escape? How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? And that's an obvious rhetorical question. The answer is, we will not escape if we neglect so great a salvation. How dangerous is drifting with respect to the gospel? Look at verses two and the first half of verse three with me. 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? Did the Old Testament law mediated by the angels prove reliable? Absolutely. It is the very word of God. I consider this well-known passage from Isaiah chapter 40. A voice says, cry. And I said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Or as Jesus simply puts the matter, Scripture cannot be broken. Furthermore, when people transgress the Old Testament law, they receive their just retribution. Please note that the author of Hebrews here is not saying, boy, it was really tough back then. He's saying that when people transgressed this law mediated by angels, the judgment they received was absolutely just. In fact, during the wilderness generation, there were a number of public and very dramatic judgments intended to drive home this very point. We have examples of God literally opening up the earth to swallow people up. But you can think from the very beginning, while Moses is up on Mount Sinai receiving the law, the people down below are making a golden calf. Do you remember the consequence of that for Israel? God has the Levites go through the camp and kill their feral Israelites. And 3,000 people died that very day. At one point when the people grumble against God, God literally sends fire from heaven and begins to consume the camp from the outside in. Killing people in an incredibly dramatic way, it would be hard to miss the nature of that judgment. And of course, because the people did not believe the word of God, instead of entering the promised land after a few weeks, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. with virtually every adult male who entered the wilderness out of the Exodus dying in the wilderness, right? Other than two men, Caleb and Joshua. Transgressing the law that was mediated by angels led to a just retribution. Let me say this obvious point once again. The living God is not to be trifled with. He is a holy God and transgressing his law has incredibly negative consequences. Now the logic of the argument of Hebrews is absolutely inescapable. If this good It's good. If this good but less full revelation proved to be entirely reliable, if every transgression and rebellion against this revelation, which was mediated by angels, received a just punishment, how can we possibly escape if we neglect the fuller and clearer revelation that we have received through the incarnate God? I do need to give you a bit of an aside here, at least for my own conscience. Please note, the author of Hebrews is not saying that the New Testament is more true than the Old Testament. That is not what he's saying, right? The Old Testament is the very word of God. It is therefore infallible, inerrant, reliable, trustworthy. Firm. It is all those things. Perfection does not allow for degrees. But the change from the Old Testament to the New is not from mostly true to true. It's from really good to fuller, richer. We know so much more about God because of who Christ is. We see him and his son in a new way, and we enjoy a greater privilege because of that. Furthermore, in light of Christ's coming, we now read the Old Testament in a much brighter light. That is, you can understand Ezekiel better than people in 500 BC could, because you know where the story goes. The point the author of Hebrews is making is that the revelation we receive in and through the sun is fuller and clearer than the revelation that the Saints of old received. We therefore possess a greater treasure and we also possess a greater responsibility. Let me say that again. We possess a greater treasure. We also possess a greater responsibility and I want to suggest, I hope I'm wrong about this, but I want to suggest that American Protestantism often misses that second point. In theory, we would all acknowledge that to whom much is given, much is required. But if I'm not mistaken, I think a lot of American Protestants think God was really strict in enforcing the law in the Old Testament. And while they wouldn't think of God necessarily as a Santa Claus figure, in the new covenant, we think he's kind of gone soft. We all should take a chill pill, right? Because grace just washes everything else away. Beloved, that is not what God's word teaches us. I may be exaggerating a little bit, but I fear that I'm not exaggerating all that much. If a person is entrusted with being the local register of deeds, and they corrupt that trust because they take a bribe, that is a really serious thing. That's really bad. But you know, if a Supreme Court justice corrupts the trust that he or she has been given in this very high office by taking a bribe, that is much worse, because they were given so much greater trust. Same thing's true of us. You hold an incomparable treasure in your hands when you pick up the Bible in your very own language, the Word of God which reveals the Son. with far greater fullness than our Old Testament brothers and sisters had. It's an extraordinary privilege, and with that comes extraordinary responsibility. The Apostle Peter puts the matter clearly. How great is this treasure? Peter says, If you call on him as father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your pilgrimage, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things, such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Furthermore, the Lord has called us into his own mission to reconcile the world to himself by proclaiming the gospel of his Son. How can we, whose hearts have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, drift in this way? If the key word in verse one is drift, the key word in verse three is neglect. I'm pretty sure I'm right about this. Most of us instinctively imagine that sins of commission are much more serious than sins of omission. We rationalize to ourselves, like little children do, no offense to the younger people here. I didn't say no, I'm going to get around to it later, just because I didn't do it yet, right? And so we can easily imagine that neglecting to do what God has called us to do is not as serious as transgressing what he has told us to not do. But let's make sure we're clear on this point. Neglect is not neutrality. No engaged person in the history of the world has ever been content that the person they are going to marry is neglecting them, right? Neglect is not neutrality when you're in a relationship where you're supposed to be loving each other. That's true with our relationship with God as well. Neglect of the things of God is itself a form of rebellion. When God has spoken, when the very word of salvation has been proclaimed, to treat that message with casual indifference is an affront to the living God who has revealed himself to us in and through his Son and through his written word. What does paying more careful attention look like? It looks like consistently studying scripture. It looks like submitting ourselves to faithful biblical teaching. It looks like maintaining active fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. It looks like pursuing personal holiness. And it looks like regularly praying that the Holy Spirit would realign our lives by and in accordance with the truth of the gospel. Well, that's a lot. The sharp warnings of this passage are thankfully balanced with a comforting truth. The Lord has laid for us an unshakably firm foundation by giving us his revealed will in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Now, the emphasis here in the second half of verse three, along with verse four, is upon the revelation that we are receiving in the Son and through the apostles. That is the New Testament. But the New Testament actually casts a brilliant light on the Old as well. And together, they form a firm foundation for Christian faith and Christian life. What does Hebrews say about this revelation? 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 by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. This threefold witness to the truth of who Jesus is and what he has accomplished provides us with an unshakable foundation for faith in life. And because all three aspects of the witness bearing flow from God's will, these words reveal the Lord's grace and his desire to maintain and grow his personal relationship with us. This is an expression of God's love for you. Let's look at each of these witnesses in turn. First, the good news was declared at first by the Lord. Undoubtedly here, Lord refers to the eternal Son of God who became man, right? If you just match this up with chapter one, this is about the Lord who is the Son, and who dwelt among us. Christ's first recorded message was, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. That actually points to the emphasis on Christ being the world's true king. Let's narrow that down a bit. He is, in fact, the king of the universe, but he's the king of you and I in particular. This emphasis on how Jesus is the world's true king was ushering in the kingdom of God is found all throughout the Gospels. Jesus gave his disciples a peace but the world cannot give. Jesus revealed himself as the son of man who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. And Jesus solemnly declared, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. And you can multiply this out many, many times at the way Jesus Christ himself is the source, the fountainhead, of explaining to us what it means to be in the kingdom of God. Rather than Christianity being something that evolved through human experience over time, biblical Christianity inescapably finds its source not only in what Christ did, but also in what Christ taught. The Son of God opened his mouth, And he revealed mysteries that had been hidden since the foundation of the world. I tell you all this because in the 19th and 20th centuries, it became very popular among critical scholars, and that bleeds over into the evangelical world, to act as though the Apostle Paul is the founder of Christianity. You may wonder why someone would want to do that. And the answer is this, if you have an evolving Christianity that comes out of human experience, then I can imagine that Jesus is entirely different than what Christianity says he is, right? So yeah, sure, Paul makes all these exalted claims about Jesus being God, but you know, Jesus was just a traveling Jewish teacher. He didn't believe any of that himself. And that's a complete lie. I just wish that these critics, who are still very much with us, would take the truth of the revelation of God in his son more seriously. Jesus himself is the fountainhead of the revelation of New Covenant Christianity. He makes all those claims about himself And as the very important leader that was one of the founders of our denomination put it, in his most scholarly book, which is called The Origin of Paul's Religion, the origin of Paul's religion is Jesus, right? In his person and in his own teaching. Albert Schweitzer famously described this critical search with a very memorable phrase. He said that scholar after scholar has looked for Jesus down the long well of history only to see his own face reflected back up to him from the water below. Beloved, that's not the way you and I ought to be reading the Bible. We ought not to be going to impose our ideas on what God says. And if we simply take what Jesus says at face value, we will realize that this stuff is taking the treasure that is worth more than gold and silver and turning it into dross. And yet, thankfully, Jesus did not limit his love and grace to those who heard him in the flesh. are Lord-commissioned ambassadors. We call those ambassadors apostles. But they are ambassadors who represent the king authoritatively. The Lord-commissioned ambassadors whom he filled with the Holy Spirit so that they would remember everything that he had taught them and so that they would teach his church. This apostolic witness did take the form of a great deal of preaching, but thankfully it also took the form of writing things down so that we have all these books of scripture that constitute the New Testament. So that we, many generations later, would have a more certain foundation for our faith. Now, I do want to tell you this evening, you have nothing to fear from historical investigations into the roots of Christianity, right? In order to try to evade this reality that we have God's own message, you have to be blind to what actually took place. My friend, Lake Duncan, gives an illustration from the time that he was doing his PhD at the University of Edinburgh. Professor Duncan says, I'll never forget one day in Edinburgh reading through a text from the late second century from the early church father Irenaeus. And he recounts being, and I can't remember if it was in Smyrna or in Ephesus, being places which are now in modern-day Turkey. And he talks about being in a room and listening to a man named Polycarp teach him theology. And he says, but in the midst of one of Polycarp's lectures, Polycarp says, not many years ago, John was sitting there, and he was teaching me these things. And then Dr. Duncan adds, chills ran up my spine as I thought of this man teaching in this book who had heard Polycarp, who had heard John teach him, these very things. Just the closeness of this to the Lord Jesus's ministry was overwhelming. And of course, the reason he was sharing this was that he was saying, look, I'm not confused about what the gospel is. I heard it from Polycarp, who heard it from John. I like that illustration. But I wish that Lig had added one more thing. The letter to the Hebrews is two generations earlier, or at least one. I personally hold to what has become a minority view among New Testament scholars. So you don't need to believe this at all. Some of our elders disagree with me. They could totally be right, but I think the Apostle Paul wrote Hebrews. But even if Paul did not write Hebrews, Hebrews is an early letter. Irenaeus, not surprisingly, quotes from it. It's an early letter. The apostle John, at the very least, is still alive. And there are thousands upon thousands of people who had heard the apostles preach when this letter is being distributed. And you could go to them, and they will say, yes, that's what the apostles taught. God has entrusted his word to us through his ambassadors so that we would have it for all time. Third, the Holy Spirit bore witness to the message that was taught by doing many signs and wonders. It's probably helpful for us to realize that miracles do not prove the existence of God. Some people sometimes make that mistake. But miracles do not prove the existence of God. In order for you to even understand that something is a miracle, you have to start with knowing that God is, and he's ruling the universe. An atheist who watches Israel go through on the dry ground to the Red Sea could simply say, well, that's strange. And you know what? It's a random universe. We're not surprised that strange things happen, but that's probably the strangest thing I'm ever going to see in my life. Now, that atheist, of course, has the testimony of God himself through nature. That means he's without excuse. God is revealing himself through the things that he has made, even his eternal power and Godhead. But logically, you don't have to follow miracles proving God. What miracles do is once you come to understand that there is a personal God governing the universe, is those miracles attest that certain people are his messengers. That's how miracles work. If you read the Bible, what you're gonna discover is it's not filled with miracles. A lot of people make that wrong leap. Miracles in the Bible are clustered in just three parts, three chunks of redemptive history. First, Moses and the Exodus. God was testifying that Moses was his man to deliver the people out of the house of bondage, out of Egypt, and to bring them toward the promised land, and also as the revealer of his law. And then to a lesser extent, we see that with Joshua, as Joshua becomes Moses' successor. The second big chunk of miracles we see in the Bible is Elijah and Elisha. And once again, God is attesting that they are his messengers in actually a very wicked time in Israel, while God is actually changing the way that he is going to deal with the northern tribes of Israel through their ministry. Let me give you just an example of this from 1 Kings. As the widow of Zarephath declares, After the Lord hears Elijah's prayer and raises her son from the dead, what does the widow of Zarephath say? Well, she says, now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth. The point of the miracle that God is doing is to attest Elijah's the man of God, and he's actually speaking God's word. Now there's more going on than that, but you see the same sort of function with Jesus and the apostles. The miracles testify that Jesus is who he says he is, and they testify that the apostles are authoritatively speaking on Jesus' behalf. I belabor this point because sometimes people will say, I read in Acts all these miracles, where are your miracles there in the 21st century in the OPC? And the right answer is we don't need any new miracles. Because we don't have any new revelation. We're simply standing upon the revelation that God has already given us through the Old and New Testaments. We already have God's final word in Jesus Christ as written down for us by his apostles and other authorized teachers under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We do not need anything that is new. We have every need to more diligently treasure what God has already given to us. Well, I know you guys are all very committed. You're here on a Sunday evening. You're well-educated, and it's easy for us to all nod our heads in agreement with everything I said tonight. Yep, that's true. Regrettably, it's easy to do that and then go home this evening without making any changes at all in the way that we live. Perhaps too bad that there aren't flashing warning signs as we walk out of the church this evening, warning us of the danger of simply going check and then not doing anything. Why is the risk of drifting so great? Here's why. All you need to do to drift is nothing. That's why it's so dangerous. If you do nothing, You will drift. Doing nothing is like idly splashing around in the ocean without any concern for where the tides might carry us. Faith, on the other hand, is living and active. We cannot avoid the drifting simply by being aware of the danger. In order to avoid drifting, we need to be actively doing something. Quite simply, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. And so we seek our God and we pray. Speak, O Lord, as we come to you. to receive the food of your holy word. Take your truth, plant it deep in us, shape and fashion us in your likeness, that the light of Christ might be seen today in our acts of love and in our deeds of faith. Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us all your purposes for your glory. When we say, O Lord, change us that we would say, speak, O Lord, for your servant heareth. Amen.