Well, I invite you to turn in the Scriptures today to the book of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews chapter 2, chapter 2. That's found on page, if you're looking for that, 1187. A short section today we're considering, just the first four verses of Hebrews chapter 2. Let's give our attention this morning to the word of the Lord. 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. And there ends the reading of God's Word. Well, we come to a really important section in the book of Hebrews today addressing what I believe and I think we can all validate by experience is a huge problem in Christianity. What is the problem? It is drifting away from Jesus and the truth that you have received. Drifting away from it is the way that the author of Hebrews will help us to understand this great problem. I think we all have somewhat expressed this at times in saying things like, I feel like Christianity, my Christianity is lifeless. I don't feel power in Christianity. And then we have all the challenges that come down our paths of living in this world that is full of so much turmoil, especially in light of the book of Hebrews as they were facing, beginning to face persecution for their faith. All that they were having to deal with and not experiencing, they thought, the power that we should have in this, they were drifting. We are, we've said this before, we are bombarded with voices who are telling us all day long that governments and what's happening in the world are the big issues of life. You are hearing this reoccurring voice and voices all throughout your weeks that are bearing down on you and pressing you with these issues. And we listen to those voices. We listen to those voices, don't we? We really give a lot of time to listen to those voices. And we believe much of what is said depending on our vantage point and how we look at things. Well, that has the effect, actually, as we're going to look at here, of distracting us from the largest and the most consequential concern that the Bible has for us about life as Christians. It is that we do not neglect salvation in hearing Jesus's voice. That we do not neglect that in hearing Jesus's voice. That's it. That's what we're really addressing today from Hebrews chapter 2, the very important calling that the author of the book of Hebrews gives to not drift away from what you've heard. Why would he have to say that? I think you see why the author is so strong that we have to give and pay close attention to what is being said because you'll see here the consequences of drifting are an important one. What's captivating your minds right now? What's captivating your hearts? What are you spending all your time focused on? Is drifting that big of a deal? I want to look at this basic warning today here under the three points of the danger of drifting, the way to keep from drifting, and the motivation that this passage provides you to avoid drifting. So that's how we're looking at this today. The first point being the danger of drifting. And you'll remember that the author has made this really strong case in the first chapter that God has spoken all throughout history. It's a remarkable thing that the God of heaven and earth has spoken. He's personal. It's a personal revelation, isn't it? But there's something very special to the way that he's spoken to us in these last days. That's how the Scripture characterizes the times in which you live. I think you picked it up a little bit in the law, how they were amazed that God spoke with them at that time to them specially in that way. Here, way down the line, God is speaking to us, as the Scriptures say, in the most special way that God could communicate. and his mind is on thinking about the preaching of Jesus to us. That's what this book is really going to develop and help us with. He introduced for us last time one of the great reasons that Jesus' speech is that much greater than the angels is because of who Jesus is. He's the eternal Son of God, and he came down, and he was ascended and is seated now overall, that name is declared to the ends of the earth. All things are his, says Hebrews. Everything's been put under his feet, and he has been enthroned. He's the Lord of creation. All things are his. And remember what it said last time. The author said that the Lord is going to judge this world in righteousness. He's going to roll up the heavens and the earth like a garment and make everything new. And so where he was going with all that was to say it's an absolutely serious matter that we consider today his voice. That's where he's going with this. We're fascinated with everything else. We're really fascinated with angels. We would listen to angels. But it shows the human heart that we do not give ourselves to listen to God. And we take it all very much for granted. So with that in mind, he turns to the first of five warning passages in the book. I think it's, I should say up front, that as we come to these warning passages, there's been a lot of discussion about warning passages in the Bible and how do we understand them. And it's not the time to, at this moment, explain away the potency of these passages by simply saying, ah, don't worry about it. You're God's elect. Everything will turn out great. He's not dealing with election right now. He's warning. It's absolutely true. Salvation cannot be lost. But I think we miss the real effect of these passages and cheapen them when we do that. He's speaking covenantally to everyone here. He knows your hearts. He knows right where you are. He knows if you're drifting. He knows what you're doing. And this warning goes out to all, doesn't it? It is absolutely true. Christ's sheep will hear his voice. And they will persevere. But one of the ways God perseveres his sheep is through warnings. Calvin once said, bear promises are not, think about this, bear promises are not sufficiently energetic without exhortation. In fact, he goes on in his commentary on Peter, godly minds become dim and they contract rust. Guess what he says causes that? Dimness. and rust in the Christian life. Well, that's what he says causes you to become drowsy in the Christian life. Calvin says you're not stirred up enough by constant warnings. And that's where we are today. That's what God's doing for us. In your life as a believer, you're going to have this natural propensity to drift away from all of this. You're going to come into seasons where you're ready to just be done with all of this in the course of your life. You're going to come to a time where you're just simply drifting and do not even realize it. And this is God's way of grabbing you and holding you. That's what you have to see. And in any given covenant community, there will be those who do not hear this. You could press and press and press and say you should be at church, and they just roll their eyes. Well, the book of Hebrews gives a very strong warning. How do you think you're going to escape on Judgment Day if you neglect this? there are those who will hear the voice. And this is the means God uses at times to persevere you and to hold on to you. I had to say that up front because this is so confusing sometimes for people. This warning comes as a gracious fatherly warning of care for his sheep. You would do this for your sons and daughters. We'll come back to that. So the command here is given to us all, calling us to respond and to not be apostatizing. What does the path of apostasy look like? It says to me, Chris Gordon, don't drift. You know, it's just as easy for a pastor to preach and drift. Just as easy. In fact, probably more easy for me than you. Isn't that something? Don't drift. Apply yourself to the means God's given. well that's where it's so important here to understand what the author does as he will frequently do he moves from exposition of scripture to application of scripture and we are right in the middle of a big application point he exposited all these psalms last time and now he applies it and the first of these warnings is important what is it therefore a great conclusion is made. Since Jesus himself is speaking to you in the gospel, since it's his voice that you're hearing, since you're listening to God's eternal divine son in the preaching of the gospel, therefore you've got to pay the most close attention to what you've heard lest you drift away from it. Wow. The heart of the concern is there is a real danger in your life of drifting. And he provides a strong analogy in comparison to help you hold on to this so that you'll be able to think about it in your minds and understand it. Everyone knows that this was a common nautical metaphor he's using here, the author. What he's thinking of is a big ship entering a harbor. Imagine this in the first century, a big ship, wooden ship entering in the harbor. They don't have motors. And everyone knew that a captain had to be really skilled at steering that ship into the harbor. Without motors, you can just imagine what might happen. Anyone who's ever been on a boat knows how weird perception is on the water. Without realizing it, you can find yourself drifting because of winds. And all of a sudden, you're way off track. I remember one time someone let me steer their boat into the harbor. You never should let a pastor do that, by the way. Before I knew it, I was steering it into another boat. And somebody had to dive in to push the other boat away. Think of a big ship. Too much speed. You ever seen those big barges come in and they didn't calculate the speed and all of a sudden they're going to hit land and these big barges crash into everything. There's nothing to stop it. Just as dangerous is to not realize as you're coming in how far you've drifted off course due to winds and currents and you can't control that boat. What's the author concerned about. He applies all that to your spiritual state because they've not considered how easy it is to drift. They have not taken the faith very seriously. They're just loosely connected to it, playing games, and things are happening. I had a pastor say to me this week, he's about 60 and been in the ministry a long time, never in his years of ministry has he seen so much drifting than in these last two years. Why is this so important? Because the pathway to apostasy, which is what he's worried about in the book of Hebrews, apostasy, of course, is knowing the truth and defecting and moving away from the truth and leaving the truth. That path all begins by drifting. It begins with people who become lax in their commitment to Jesus. And their commitments are in everything else. Apostasy doesn't happen out of the blue. When the Bible talks about hardships and times of delusion, it says that there will be those who believe the lie and apostatize. Do you know how they got there? Second Thessalonians 3 says, because they refused in the day when it was good to love the truth and so be saved. Psalm 27, I think, rehearses that where life was good and he loved the house of the Lord and he listened carefully to the Lord because then the hard days came and he appealed to the Lord. You said, seek my house and I've always sought your house. I've loved coming to worship to hear your voice. Would you now, in the day of my hardship, preserve me in your voice, in your teaching? Teach me your way, O Lord. Uphold me now, because things have gotten really hard. That is hearing the voice of the Lord today, lest you should harden your hearts. I think you can even make the case that in these five warnings, they're somewhat progressive in nature. And that's a huge application to the Christian life. Drifting is not something you actively do. In other words, it's something that simply passively happens because of what you're not doing. What were they not doing? What leads to drifting people on the ocean? Drifting boats? Hebrews is going to press us on this everywhere. He'll say things like, let us maintain, hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering. You've got to hold on to what you believe. It's as one pastor said, it's a failure to keep a firm grip on the truth through carelessness and a lack of concern. And that's what the author's calling to, to keep us from drifting. Notice what he says, therefore we must pay the most careful attention to what we've heard lest we drift away. In sanctification, not justification, in sanctification, God sees a great responsibility for the believer to be disciplined and focused and given to listening to him. It's hard work. Here's the reality. The vitality of the Christian life is centered on your connection and how you give yourself to hear the Word of God. That's the vitality of your life. That's the strength of your life. A lot of people will come and listen to sermons, but it doesn't mean they've heard them. It doesn't mean they've digested them. It doesn't mean that they've internalized the truth. They've heard it, but they've not truly heard it. The truth has to be taken into the heart. The truth has to be believed from the heart. And when that happens, there's a realization that all power and all strength and all help and all growth and vitality to this belongs to, through that means, of hearing and receiving that word. This is what Jesus was emphasizing in the parable of the sower. When he says there are seeds that land in different places. There are those, when it lands among the thorns, the word does not grow in their life at all. There's no growth at all in that word because the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches are choking that word. There is no growth in it. How many of you are filled with the cares of life? How many of you are focused on all your stuff? It's a pathway to drifting. And he goes on and says, the seed that lands among rocky soils and the hardships of life and even the persecutions lead people away from that word. Hardship and persecution lead people away from the word. How does drifting occur? Well, we could give some practical ways and come because you have to to church. You're never really taking in the Word. The Word is never really a centerpiece in your homes. It's never really open. If this Word has practically no bearing on your life and you're worried about everything else and you're giving yourself to all the cares of this life and you're functionally never living and digesting the Word of God, I promise you you're drifting. You're drifting right now. The Word has to be heard and the Word has to be believed. and that gets to, I think, the fact that many complain at times that there's no real connection to this, or they don't feel the strength of this. The Word is exhilarating, beloved. The Word is exciting. It's what God inspired for us, and of all people, Reformed people should be most given to it, but I find that sometimes it's the evangelicals who are holding the Word open at the coffee shop. This gets to what Jesus said. If you abide in my word, you're my disciples. You're remaining in that word. You're staying with that word. The evidence of somebody who's persevering by grace is somebody who remains and gives themselves to hear the word of God. Dr. Godfrey made an important point in Sunday school that I don't, we just bounce off each other. This just works really well. But I don't want to get away from it. That's why we sang Psalm 81. I went back and looked at it, and he made a good case that this is the actual centerpiece, center verse of the entire Psalter. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide. I'll fill it. It's not just food. I'll fill you with my word. But my people didn't listen to my voice. Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own counsels. Oh, that my people would listen to me. And that Israel would walk in my ways. Then all this stuff you're seeing in your world, it'll go a little bit better. That's the Old Covenant. What is pulling you away from all this today? Is it an attitude? Is it because you've literally been born into a tradition? Is it politics? Is it the cares of life? Is it that you have everything under the sun and you never have to worry about money? What is it that's pulling you away? drifting doesn't require effort but staying on course requires paying earnest and most all you have to give your attention to listen to Jesus if you take the metaphor further paying attention was a word used in early Greek to mean hold course by securing your anchor we have this um says author sure and steadfast anchor of the soul a hope that enters in the inner place behind the curtain what he's saying is in all this distressing time and all this hardship that you're facing in all the places you're looking to run to find solutions he's saying let jesus's word anchor you let it be your anchor it'll keep you from drifting there's something about a centered person that we need to think about that no wind around you no storm no fear no passion nothing can drift you because you're so anchored in the word of God it's what he's after isn't that wonderful that he wants that for you? He's calling you to that? Think of how much Jesus gives you in all these distresses of life to help you with the Word. Think of all these encouragements and strengths. You know, I was thinking, I was reading Deuteronomy 4 this week. Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire? As you have heard and live, out of heaven he let you hear his voice that he might instruct you. You heard his words because he loved you. You're a holy people to the Lord. The Lord, your God, has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure. And from heaven, he decided to speak to you of all the peoples in the earth. He decided to speak to you in the most special time ever, in the most special way ever, through the voice of his risen son, who came down here from heaven, who died on a cross to pay for your sins and went back up and was seated and now speaks from heaven through the voice of the one whose name has been declared to the ends of the earth, whom everything belongs to, and he says, I love you, listen to me. The author makes one final point to give you a motivation to this. He says in verse two, 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 so great a salvation? Angels, it's pretty clear when you look at the revelation that the law was mediated through angels. I believe this passage is a direct shot against the idea that the Old Testament God was strict and hard and more judgmental. That was the Marcionite error. But in the New Testament, he's just, he's good. He's less requiring. Actually, he's saying the opposite. He's saying the exact opposite. The Old Covenant, a far less superior form of speech came through angels. and God sent judgments on those who didn't believe it. But now he's directly spoken to us through his Son. Notice what he says. How do you think you're going to escape if you neglect that salvation? The greatest way God's ever spoken throughout history is what you're enjoying today. Jesus. His voice, come, if you will hear his voice today, let us not harden our hearts as in the rebellion. Everyone in the Old Testament who didn't listen, the angels gave a just retribution. Don't think that if you refuse the voice of Jesus today, just because you're born into this, or you got lots, don't think you'll escape. to reject Jesus' voice is more dangerous today. That's what he's saying. You are the most privileged of all people. So listen to him. And he drives it home by saying, listen, it was first declared by the Lord when he came down from heaven and he came here, he preached the gospel out of his own vocal cords. Jesus himself taking on humanity. He preached the gospel. And it was, notice, attested to, not by those who saw him. The whole church was built on those who heard him. That's what he says there. And God confirmed all that with awesome signs and wonders and miracles. He even gave his spirit, gifts of the spirit, according to his will. All of this has been validated. The church was built on those who heard. What he's saying is, if Jesus came down from heaven and spoke the gospel on earth to us, in other words, as the Lord our God who has come down from heaven to us, got off the throne in his humanity, preached the gospel, and the entire church was built on what's been passed to us today in the same way by those who heard, then we should hear the same way. The evidence never lacked. And God has always spoken. So what is he doing here to close? The author in the face of apostasy is speaking to the whole community. Again, he's pastorally concerned, isn't he? If you saw your son drifting in a boat and he's about ready to go over the waterfall, what are you going to do? Son, son, here's the line. Be anchored. I love you. Wouldn't you care enough to say, son, don't go near the edge? Wouldn't you warn your son and your daughter about going near the edge? It's not love not to. Hold fast to the anchor, says the author. the Father's not scaring you to death. He's rescuing. I think this anticipates what he's about to say, that God chastens those whom he loves. This is how he's doing it. It requires commitment in your life to this and sanctification. God justifies you freely by his grace. And in sanctification, It's a little struggling life. Be anchored in my word, says God. Sons and daughters, don't drift. What's your attitude to my word? What does your life say? The voice that you hear every week in the word of God, that inspired voice that was given to you in the power of Jesus preached, is, listen to me, it is the power of God to keep you and uphold you. It is an anchor for your soul in a world full of turbulence and ruin that it's about to fall into eternally. Anchor yourself here. Anchor yourself in the voice of Jesus. He'll keep you. He will preserve you by grace to the end by his power. So let us hear his voice today is the call of the author of Hebrews. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for speaking such a word to us. Thank you for giving that warning. And yet we know that you do it as a father to his sons and daughters. You're so faithful. You're so kind. You're so merciful. Let our hearts and minds be filled with your word. and the marvel of the work of Jesus for us. And may we not drift. If there's any drifting here today, would you, Lord, bring them back and anchor them in the word of God? And we are so grateful that you give us the time to receive this word. Bless us now and help us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.