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Let's take our Bibles at this time and turn to Hebrews 2. We'll be considering verses 1 to 4 together this morning. We recently came across in our house some old video footage of my high school basketball team, and I was watching that with the kids, and it took me way, way back to almost a different world, long, long forgotten. As a teenager, I attended a Christian high school. And in order to be enrolled in that school, I believe you had to make some kind of profession of faith in Jesus Christ. And so I think probably the way that I felt and many of us felt, I think most of us just assumed more or less that we were all Christians. I found myself, after watching that video footage, wondering how many of my classmates would profess Jesus Christ as their Savior today, almost 20 years later. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing that it's probably less than half of them. Have you ever looked back and realized just how much has changed? I mean, the people in your life, that seems strong in their faith and that you really respected maybe even for their relationship with God, and it appears like they've just drifted away. What happened? And maybe even a heavier thought, do you think that that could actually happen to you? Or to me? As you think about people who profess Christ as their Savior, it seems that people are either drawing near to Jesus or they're drifting away from Him. The writer of Hebrews is addressing what we sometimes refer to as the visible church, which basically just refers to the church that you can see with your eyes. But just like with my Christian high school, not everyone who is part of it is truly a Christian, not everyone that you look out and go, oh, well, they're a Christian. They may not be. When you look at the visible church, even our church, it's kind of like looking at a safe harbor. And you have all of these ships sitting there in the harbor, and they all appear to have come in from the danger and destruction of the seas. They all appear to be saved, or to use our language, saved by Jesus Christ. But I think we could recognize that a ship that has come in from the seas and is sitting there in a safe harbor, it's much different than a ship that has come into the harbor and anchored there or is tethered to the docks. Jesus warned of this kind of reality in several ways, and some of his most sobering words come in Matthew chapter seven, verses 21 to 23, where Jesus said this. He said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, and then he keeps going with more sobering words. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name, and then Jesus will declare to them, he'll say, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Jesus, you may recall, also told a parable about different types of soil. And in that parable, you get the idea that there are seeds that have signs of life and maybe even shoot up, but the plant does not persevere or endure. In Hebrews, the test of genuine faith in Jesus is not merely a profession of faith in Jesus. I think for many of us, we go, oh, well, I had this moment where I made a profession of faith in Jesus back when I was a child or many years ago or at this point of time, and see, there it is, that seals it. Well, that's not how it's described in the book of Hebrews. As I mentioned in the book of Hebrews, the test of genuine faith in Jesus is not merely a profession, but perseverance, endurance in the faith, basically through all the upheaval of the Christian life, all the way to the end. For example, Hebrews 3, verse 14 says, for we have come to share in Christ. Basically, we share in Christ and his salvation. We're united with him if, indeed, we hold our original confidence firm to the end. God is not saying that you earn eternal life by continuing on as a Christian all throughout the years and persevering and enduring in your faith through all the ups and downs of life. And if you do that, you will earn for yourself salvation. That's not what he's saying at all, but rather what he's saying is that those who truly have salvation, those who truly have new life in Christ, the work that God began in them, that is going to endure. Their faith in Christ is going to endure all the way to the end, come what may, no matter how difficult it may be. True Christians are not fair-weather Christians. Those who truly have salvation will endure to the end imperfectly, but truly. The recipients of this letter, the book of Hebrews, have their roots in Judaism, hence the title Hebrews. And it would appear here that they are tempted to turn back to Judaism and in so doing turn away from Jesus. And obviously to do such a thing would be total destruction, and some of them would indeed do that, but not those who were truly God's children. So what about you? Given that danger of drifting, God warns you that you must embrace and pay careful attention to the gospel. The gospel is not just some profession thing. This is the Christian's life. The Christian pays attention to and fixes his eyes and holds on to and meditates on the gospel. So you must embrace and pay careful attention to the gospel. Look at Hebrews 2, 1 to 4. lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience, talking about here under the Old Testament law, received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation through Christ? This 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 by wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. We just read what is one of the first of five warning passages in the Hebrews, and these passages speak about drifting and falling away from Jesus. At the end of the day, apostasy. Or abandonment and renunciation of Jesus, just rejection of him. Yeah, I don't believe that anymore. And these are very serious texts. They're not to be taken lightly. Given that there are five of them, I think it's worth taking some time here at the outset to get a few things straight because some people would look at these warning passages that seem so severe and the language in them and walk away basically with the idea that these passages indicate that you could somehow lose your salvation. But that idea contradicts several clear teachings of scripture. If someone falls away, I think we would have to say this, they were never truly saved to begin with. Sure, maybe they made a profession. But they never truly had life in Christ. And I wanna show you that from several places in scripture, because we're gonna get to these texts, and if you don't have your bearings first, your mind's gonna be going in a million directions. So let me just show you several texts that I think lay the foundation about our salvation. First, if you wanna turn with me to 1 Peter 1, verses three to five. Peter opens up this letter and he starts with this statement of magnificent praise to God. 1 Peter 1 verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter goes on to explain why God should be blessed and praised. It's because of something so amazing that he's done. According to his great mercy or his pity or compassion towards us, he has caused us to be born again. Who is it that causes someone to be saved? It is God. God has caused us to be born again to a living hope, a hope that is alive. How so? Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And then here, giving special attention to verses four and five to an inheritance, that's a reference to eternal salvation. to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. A couple quick notes on those verses. What does God do by his power there? Well, we see that your inheritance, your eternal salvation is actually being kept or guarded or preserved for you. And we could take that statement and literally flip it around and we see the inverse in verse five. You, on the flip side of that, are being guarded, kept, or preserved for your eternal inheritance, your eternal salvation. Basically, God is guarding, preserving, keeping you in your salvation if you are truly born again. Why don't you flip over to Romans chapter eight, verse 30. We'll look at another verse that just talks about how secure our salvation is in Christ. Romans 8 verse 30, well-known verse here, it says, So if you just quickly notice the verbs there, predestined, called, justified, glorified. And also, don't just notice what the verbs or the actions are. Notice the verb tense. All of those verbs are in the past tense. They're spoken of as if they've already occurred. So here's the point. If you are a Christian, that first verb, predestined, that's the idea of election or being chosen. That is something that according to Ephesians chapter one, God says, well, that happened all the way in eternity past. God chose us in him before the foundation of the world. And then you have that last verb, glorified. When did that happen? It hasn't. It hasn't happened yet, but it is spoken of here in Romans 8, verse 30, as if it has already occurred. In other words, it's as good as done. When God chooses someone for salvation in eternity past, he sees that work all the way through to the end. This chain that we see in Romans 8, verse 30, it is on a broken chain. When the first thing occurs, that's a guarantee. It's going to go all the way to the end. Salvation is the sovereign work of God through and through, and what that ought to do for you is leave you so reassured. For those of you who may be forever plagued by doubts about your salvation, I won't ask you to raise your hand if that's you, but I would imagine there are many, many people sitting in this room, and it's this perpetual gnawing thing on your mind and your heart. Am I really saved? Could I lose this? If that is you, I would encourage you to find your rest in texts just like these. And what these texts are calling you to do is stop looking at yourself, stop asking, did I mean it enough? Do I have enough faith? And look at Jesus, God himself and his perfect work. Find your rest by looking at the Lord and see that it is God who actually keeps and preserves you in your salvation. We also have very clear statements like that in Philippians 1, verse 6, where we read, he who began a good work in you. That's talking about God saving you. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. God says, whatever I finish, I always start. Also, Jesus was quite clear in John 10, 27 and 29. He said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. Those are precious, precious, precious words that God is the one who keeps us. 1 John 5.13 also indicates that it is possible to be confident that you have salvation. God's intent is not that a Christian would sit there and go, am I saved? Am I not saved? I don't know. The Bible indicates you can know for sure. Okay, so let's take all of that scripture that I just gave you and this idea of how Christians are eternally secure and they persevere. If we take that in a very oversimplified way and we import it into the book of Hebrews, it almost makes these warnings seem like they're no big deal. So here's the tension point with the warning passages. We don't want to take an overly simplistic view that in essence neuters them or robs them of their bite as if they're just idle warnings, no big deal. They're not. They're meant to hit hard, really hard. And so I'm going to preach these texts from a perspective that they are indeed real warnings. God's not just blowing steam. And I'm also gonna preach that genuine believers persevere, they endure. It is possible to be a true believer. Is it possible to be a true believer and to apostatize and lose your salvation? Well, I think arguably we could say, well, hypothetically, but does that ever actually happen? And the answer would be no, never. It never has, it never will. That doesn't occur because God perfectly guards His elect or chosen ones from that ever occurring. And arguably, one of the ways that God does that is by warning people, His people, of that real danger. So if the things in these warning passages, they show up in your life, that should be highly concerning, highly, highly, highly concerning. God wants you to take these texts seriously. Maybe you sit here and you're not converted. You're not one of God's children. And God wants to show you that through a text like this. Or maybe you are one of God's children, you're truly saved, and God wants to get your attention. Hey, the way you're living, that is not OK. and you must give attention to the gospel. Embrace and pay careful attention to the gospel. As this text unfolds, I think we'll see three reasons for that. Here's the first one. Why should you pay careful attention to the gospel? Because you know of the supremacy of the Son of Jesus. Look at verse one. Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard. We read in chapter one that God has spoken to us through or by his son. God has spoken his last and final definitive word through his son, and now he's saying, pay very, very careful attention to that. What you have heard. Why must we give ourselves to and embrace the gospel, that message that Jesus has taught? Well, because of everything we saw in chapter one. Chapter two opens with the word, therefore, connecting what's said here in the beginning of chapter two with what came before. You should pay close attention to the gospel. You should immerse yourself in the gospel. You should give yourself to the gospel. Because as we have seen, God has spoken to us through his son, who is far, far superior to angels. He's supreme above all. He's God's final revelation. He's God's definite and final messenger, better than angels. And so the point God is making now, listen, listen, listen, hear, hear, hear, pay attention, pay attention, pay attention, because the gospel is your life. It's not some profession that you make at a point in time and then set there on the shelf and go live. The gospel is your life. Now to think of it any other way will result in drift. So pay careful attention, embrace the gospel because you know of the supremacy of the son. But the writer of Hebrews quickly turns to a second reason, because you could drift from Jesus and the gospel. That's what's at the heart of this text. Why pay so careful attention to the revelation through God's Son? Well, you could drift. Look at verse one, therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. You must fix your attention on the gospel, or you will, and the language here, it's not so much conveying that you might drift away, You will drift from it. It's certain. You think about a boat and maybe this is kind of a silly idea, but you can't be out on a lake with a boat and then shove the boat into park or neutral and there you go. We're not going anywhere. You're either anchored or you're drifting, and there's not much in between. So if you give some thought with me to this whole drifting idea, I'd like to go fishing. Many of you may enjoy that as well. Often, when we're out on a lake fishing, we'll start in a fishing boat and kind of troll around the shoreline slowly for a while until we catch something. And if we start catching fish somewhere, then we'll often kill the most motor and start casting in that place for a while where we think they're fish. And sometimes we'll throw the anchor overboard. If it's not very windy, though, we might not bother, right? Like, we'll just stay here and we'll cast. But we often don't even realize when we do that that we've drifted several yards, perhaps even hundreds of yards on a lake until all of a sudden we're like, what's going on? We're not catching fish anymore. What happened? And then all of a sudden, oh, it's really obvious, like, we were catching fish 300 yards over there. We've drifted. And that happens because drifting is so subtle, and it's often imperceptible, right? You don't even notice. And the warning here coming from the writer of Hebrews is not about doing some kind of like massive U-turn and 180 degree turn where you're going this way and then you're like, whoop, I'm literally going the other direction. But rather of slow, steady, imperceptible drift. Drift happening just a little bit at a time. Not all at once. And often when you think about drifting, it's very, very unintentional. You don't set out to do it. A professing believer doesn't wake up one morning and say, hey, you know what? I don't believe in Jesus anymore. This whole Jesus died for me and rose again. Yeah, that's not me. I don't believe that. It happens a little bit at a time. And maybe that occurs this way. Your Bible reading and your prayer start to slide. You're not really doing that so much. You start skipping church. Distractions take over your life. Drifting, as you think about it, requires almost nothing, right? You don't have to do much at all to drift. No effort. But on the flip side, living a life of spiritual commitment often requires intentionality. Pay attention to and don't drift away from the message proclaimed by the Son. God says, you have received this wonderful revelation, the gospel through the Son. And you must fix your gaze on that, you must run towards that, you must live for that. Immerse yourself in it. The author is ultimately warning here about apostasy, turning away from Jesus. But I do think we could ask, well, where does that start? With a 180 degree U-turn, probably not. So if you just ask yourself for a moment, well, which way are you moving? Are you drawing near to Jesus or are you drifting away from him? Ask yourself questions like this. Have I been drifting? When was the last time that I truly felt close to God? And as you think through that and you go, ah, it's been a while, well, then what changed? Did it all start maybe because of undealt with sin in your own heart or life? Something happened, you sinned or something went south relationally with somebody. Maybe there was sin on both sides and you just didn't deal with it. We read in the Old Testament about King Solomon and how he multiplied wives and how they led his heart away from the Lord. I think we could take from that that oftentimes we allow things into our life that maybe in drastic ways tend to pull on our hearts or maybe in very, very subtle ways pull us away. Often just the things that we allow into our mind and heart, we think, oh, it's not that big of a deal, and yet the effect over time is massive. Or maybe you'd say, I don't feel like I'm drifting. As I mentioned, drifting is often unnoticeable until we're far, far, far from shore. Have you checked your spiritual position lately? Just honestly looked at everything, where am I at with God? I want you to do something, and that is to step back and evaluate the trajectory of your spiritual life. over the last several months. What trajectory do you see? And maybe a helpful analogy to give you a visual. If you're evaluating something like a stock, you look at a stock chart. Obviously, you have no idea what a day is going to hold. You have no idea how the markets will perform or how that stock will perform. But you can look at a stock chart. And what you can often do is pick up on a trajectory. So if you see a stock and you see just this slow, steady, incremental climb over a long period of time, well, that's probably Probably a positive thing, hard to say for sure. But on the flip side of that, if you have the good chart kind of going like this, what if you have the opposite of that? You see a trajectory that's a slow, steady, downward climb. Are you feeling very excited about that investment? Probably not. especially if it's over a period of time. Good chance that's cause for concern. So if you would take a moment and just try to chart and graph your spiritual life like that for a moment. What do you see? What kind of trajectory are you looking at? So does it look and sound maybe something like this? I used to be a lot closer to Jesus than I am right now. I used to love my Bible much more than I do now. I used to pray more than I do now. I used to feel a hunger and need and desire for that. I used to have very different priorities than I do now. I used to prioritize being with God's people much more than I do now. There was a time when I actually used to be extremely sensitive to my sin. More so than I am now. Or I used to have much more joy and delight in Jesus than I do now. If that's the chart you're looking at, I believe God is talking to you here. And you say, well, I haven't rejected Jesus. Okay. But essentially what you're saying is that maybe this kind of analogy would be helpful, that you're in a state of free fall. And you're not concerned about where that ends or about what that might say. The writer of Hebrews, God here in this passage, he says, well, maybe you should be, maybe I'm trying to show you something through that kind of trajectory in your life. You must embrace and pay careful attention to the gospel because you could drift from Jesus and the gospel. Let's say you are a genuine believer. You are a Christian and you're sitting here, yeah, I'm adrift. Well, you could ask this question, how did it happen? How did I go from being close to the Lord to drifting? And plain and simple, based on this text, that happened through neglect of the gospel. And so we could turn it around and go, well, then how is it remedied? And same thing, plain and simple, careful attention to the gospel. Where have you seen drifting in your life? Could you maybe grab a pen and a paper and just write that down? I see it here, and I see it here, and I see it here, and I see it here. God says what you're seeing there, that all came about through neglect of the gospel. And so bring the gospel into the equation. Okay, I have not been giving myself to this and to these truths. I have not been immersing myself in God's word and the gospel. Maybe you sit here and you're not a believer at all, and the reason you're drifting from Jesus is because you never, plain and simple, you never had Jesus. Maybe you've grown up in church, you've been a part of a church for years and years and years, and you've had some kind of superficial connection to Jesus, like the church or your family ties, or you made some profession of faith as a kid. But at the end of the day, you've never truly had faith in Jesus Christ. Maybe you made that profession, that was all it was. God is trying to show you here that you need Jesus. And you need the safe harbor of the gospel. A third reason that you must embrace and pay careful attention to the gospel is because you can't escape God and his justice. Look at verses two to four. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and that's a reference to the Old Testament law, And every transgression or disobedience under the Old Testament law received a just retribution. If that's the case, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared 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. Everything in the verses I just read essentially hangs, excuse me, on the phrase right there in the middle. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? How shall we escape God's justice if we do that? You can't escape God and his justice. In fact, you couldn't escape it under the Old Testament, the Old Covenant. If you look at verse 2 again, that's the point being made there. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, every transgression, every disobedience received a just retribution. That is an argument from the lesser to the greater. God's saying, well, let's look back at the Old Testament. It's an argument from the old covenant to the new and from angels to Jesus. You may have wondered in chapter one, why on earth is there all this talk about angels? I mean, it's really awesome, but I have no idea why it's there. And verse two here begins to shed some light on that. When God gave his people the Old Testament law at Mount Sinai, which was this glorious, glorious occasion. It came through angels, which is why it's referred to here as the message declared by angels. In that context, Deuteronomy 33 verse 2 mentions that 10,000s of holy ones, they're referenced in that event. 10,000s of angels. Act 753 says you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it. In Galatians 3 19, the law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. When you think about the Old Testament law and the giving of the law, that was a magnificent, glorious event. Angels were involved. It was very, very, I mean, smokes there on the mountain. It's a big deal. Well, when you think about the old covenant and the law and how God related to people under it, do you think, you know, yeah, that was kind of like a big joke. No, you think, wow, like when God, when God sent the law, it was a big deal and God meant business. God was serious. We're entering into a covenant and here's how this arrangement works. You might mistakenly think of the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New as two different people. God here in Hebrews doesn't make that kind of contrast. Rather, he argues from the lesser to the greater. When people broke the Old Testament law that came through angels, the punishment fit the crime. For everything, there was a fair and equal response to that. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, right? So if you pluck someone's eye out, well, the payment is you're going to lose one of your eyes. There were no loopholes. God is arguing here that when people violate the new covenant that comes not through angels, but through God's own Son, there's no escape. The God of the Old Testament's not a different God. He's not some kind of cosmic pushover. You turn away from the Son of God, how do you think you're going to escape God's judgment? The people in the Old Testament certainly didn't. I mean, think about the wilderness wanderings. You have people like Nadab in a bayou. You have these occasions where God's people sinned, they broke the law, and the earth opens up and swallows them alive. Serpents are sent, plagues are sent, leprosy is sent, judgment after judgment after judgment. You can't escape God and his justice. You couldn't escape it under the old covenant. Why on earth would you think in this era, when God's revelation, his final definitive revelation through the son has come, that you could reject that and that'd be fine? You certainly can't escape God's justice under the new covenant. Look at verse three again. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? Salvation through the son. Jesus is the only way to escape God's judgment. So if you neglect that, if you neglect him, you turn away from him. You've got nothing. There is no escape from a holy God. Salvation through the Son is too great to neglect. It's called such a great salvation. What makes it great? Well, the Son of God died on the cross for your sins. God came. Jesus died for your sins. He was buried. He rose again from the grave to make you a new creation and to grant you eternal life. You don't work for this salvation. You don't earn it. You don't attain it. You simply receive it as a free gift by grace through faith. You repent and you believe. There's no work for you to do. Jesus already did it all. If you've never embraced this salvation that's called so great in this passage, Why would you leave here today without doing that? Salvation through the Son is amazing. It is great. And God has said, listen to my words. I have spoken to you through my Son, Jesus. Salvation is free through him. Will you receive it? It's too great to neglect. And it's also true that salvation through the Son is too well attested to neglect. You want to drift away from the gospel, turn away from Jesus, seek salvation some other way? God's saying, well, can we be honest with the facts here? You know the truth. Salvation through the Son is way, way, way too well attested to neglect. The validity of the gospel rests on three supports that are mentioned in this text. First we read that it was announced by Jesus. Look at verse three. How should we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, that's Jesus Christ. In Mark 115, Jesus said, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe this good news that I'm preaching to you. It was announced by Jesus. It was then witnessed by others. Verse three, it was attested to us by those who heard. That's a reference to apostles and others. And then number three, we read it was affirmed by God the Father himself. Verse four. While God also bore witness, he added his stamp to all of this. How so? Well, by signs, wonders, various miracles, gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. How did God the Father validate the message of the gospel through the son? Well, two ways, signs, wonders, miracles, and then second, the distributing of gifts of the spirit, giving of the spirit and gifts with that. The father's putting his stamp of validity on the gospel message. He's saying, this is it. This is my message through the sun. It's got my stamp written all over it. If you reject that, that is on you. You might think of verses three and four through the lens of two different images. First would be a courtroom scene and what's being examined. It's the gospel and its validity. It's the salvation through the son. And the witnesses are lined up out the door and first up comes Jesus and he testifies, this is my message. And second, come the apostles and others, and they affirm it, too. Yes, yes, this is the gospel. This is true. This is how one is saved through Christ. And finally, third, up to the bench comes the father by signs, wonders, miracles, the Holy Spirit and the gifts. The father bears witness. I have spoken to you through my son. Listen to him. Salvation is through him. The father himself is testifying salvation is through the son. What more evidence do you need? You might also think of these verses kind of like a signed contract. When some kind of arrangement, especially a large one is being made, it's nice to have something written down, some contract. And that contract represents validation, which is very reassuring. And when it comes to salvation through the Son, whose signatures are validating or vouching that this truly is the way of salvation? Jesus Christ himself, the apostles, the Father. So if you're going to neglect that salvation, God is saying, listen, this is so well attested. You say you want more evidence. You're not gonna stand before God on the day of judgment and say it wasn't clear enough. God says I put my stamp all over it. On judgment day, you won't have the excuse to make that it wasn't clear. So you must embrace and pay careful attention to the gospel because you can't escape God and his justice. What do we do with this? A few things that come to mind. One would be to respond to the weight of this warning passage. You know, that profession that you made, what if you could take that and just set it aside for a moment? And we ask, maybe we think about it more through this lens. What about right now today? How are you living today? And what does that say? Maybe God is putting this text here in front of you so that you would realize that you are not saved. You do not have this salvation that is so, so great. What you have is some form of religion. Or maybe you sit here and you have heard the gospel your entire life, you're a young person or a young adult, and you have heard it and you have heard it and you have heard it and you intellectually, you get it. You understand this message, you know it's well-attested, you have no doubt that it's true, and you're sitting there going, but I'm not ready yet. I'm just not sure I want to do this right now. And you're holding off, and God is trying to get your attention and say, no, no, no, you need Jesus. Why not today? How about right now, you think that you push God off and you go, yeah, I know this great truth, but I don't want it. And you think you will escape him? You will not. Why not cry out to Jesus and say, I want your salvation? Save me by your blood, by your death and your resurrection. Give me that gift. Maybe you are saved and. God's trying to wake you up and you think that you can live the Christian life and it's just all under grace and it doesn't matter how you live. Well, warning passages like this, I think, are here to shake you up and say you think you can just keep doing that and you can do that and you can do that and it doesn't matter and it doesn't matter and it doesn't matter if you can keep hearing warning passages like this and you don't change. God might just be saying, maybe you don't have life. Because if you do have new life in Christ and you read a passage like this, you will say, no, I am a Christian and Jesus is my life and I'm going to run after him. Listen to Jesus in the gospel. If you're a Christian, immerse yourself in the gospel. God has not called you to religion, but to a relationship. He has called you to immerse yourself into the gospel of his son. And so saturate yourself in that. It is the gospel that helps Christians grow and stay close to the Lord, and it's needed now in your life. And maybe you've sat here and you go, yeah, I'm not doing so well. Well, take inventory of your life, see where things went wrong, and say, Jesus, I wanna walk with you again. And I am gonna commit myself to your word. I'm gonna commit myself to your gospel. I'm gonna commit my life to the same priorities that you have for me. Live fully committed to the gospel. Faithful endurance and commitment define the Christian life. That's part of what's showing up in these warning passages. If you don't see a life of commitment to Jesus, that should be highly concerning. Also, one more big idea in terms of application. Let's strive to exercise meaningful church membership. Meaningful membership means that we are actually spiritually involved in each other's lives. We're not spiritually aloof to how our so-called brothers and sisters are doing. That means that we don't assume that someone's presence here on a Sunday for years and years and years. We don't assume that that indicates genuine faith in Jesus Christ. Rather, what we do is we march towards each other. We march into each other's lives. We don't assume salvation. We go and we cultivate relationships, and we have those conversations, and we go there together. It also means that we don't settle for surface relationships in our body where you could have people that are part of the body of Christ here. They look like they're safe in the harbor and where people can then be adrift for long, long periods of time and somehow that go unnoticed. It's possible to attend church with people for decades and then all of a sudden you're caught off guard and you're like, well, I mean, they were here every Sunday. What happened? It seems like they're not doing so well. What on earth is going on? Again, we need to pursue relationships that are open, honest, transparent with one another. John was praying about that very thing this morning. We are a people who live our spiritual lives together and consequently, hopefully, very quickly catch when things aren't right. And we speak into each other's lives, and we have other people who, when we're not doing well, hopefully they catch that. Because we've so spiritually intertwined our lives, we need each other, and that is how God has designed it. Who in your life or in your church seems to be drifting right now? Maybe some of you are like, I don't know that so-and-so's doing so well. Maybe one of the reasons that God has brought this text before us today is so that you would think about that person and you would go, well, hey, but to the best of my knowledge, that's my brother or sister in Christ, and I'm concerned. And so I'm going to actually lovingly march into their life. Take an interest, figure out what's going on. Maybe God wants you to reach out to them, embrace and pay careful attention to the gospel. And one final thought, no matter how far you've drifted. Maybe you're sitting here and you're like, man, this is so bad. This is me. This has been awful. Jesus can and wants to bring you back. He is not one who's just like, I don't care if my kids are way out at sea. He's calling you back because he loves you, and no matter how far out to sea you have drifted, so to speak, if you are truly one of God's children, he says, welcome back, come back. Be restored to fellowship with me. Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me at this time?
The Danger of Drifting
Series Hebrews
Sermon ID | 33025205556445 |
Duration | 41:48 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | Hebrews 2:1-4 |
Language | English |
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