The Dangers of Drifting from the word ser.
What do you value? 1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
What do you value most in life?
What would you be willing to sacrifice everything for?
Is there anything?
How many of us have sung the words? “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give,” but how true are those words for us as we sing them!
God has a purpose and plan for every person and for Him to be able to use you to His fullest desire, each of us have to prioritize what matters most to God for our lives, in other words we need to clarify our values, truly decide what is important to us and then bring those values into agreement with our actions.
JOSHUA 1:8 (NIV) “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
We must realize that what we value affects our entire life:
v Our values affect our stress levels.
When our values are unclear, there is confusion. When our values are in conflict, it’s because we haven’t clarified what’s important and what’s not. The result is stress.
v Our values control our success in life.
Every time you make a decision, you’re filtering that decision subconsciously or consciously through what you value.
What you think is important in life not only effects your stress, it also effects your success.
v They also effects our walk with Jesus through this life.
Jesus said that it is possible to be outwardly successful – financially, socially and every other way – and be spiritually bankrupt on the inside.
He said, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?”
v Your values will affect the people around you.
How many of us have come home from work, school or wherever, grumpy as anything, having had the worst day ever and seen our mood affect those around us! In simple terms, that is how much your values can affect others also.
Tonight, I want us to look at how you live a value-based life?
There are four things that you need to do:
1. v Choose your source.
2. v Clarify what’s important.
3. v Change your lifestyle to match what you say with what is really important.
4. v Check yourself daily to see if you’re continuing to say and do what you value
most.
- CHOOSE YOUR SOURCE (world system / Things / will of God) V.17
Where are you going to get your values from?
This is very important because the source of your values will determine the quality of your values.
Where do we get our values? We get them from a lot of places:
Parents, TV, peers, magazines and books, from music, from society in general.
But today, one major value giver is the media.
· The average American watches about 1000 hours of television a year.
That means by the time you’re 65 you will have watched TV for 9½ solid years.
If you went to church once a week for your entire life, that would only equal four months of spiritual teaching. Four months compared to 9½ years – tell me where you’re getting your primary values?
1 JOHN 2:15-16 (Mes) “Don’t love the world’s ways – wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important – has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from Him.”
This was written about 2000 years ago and it’s still relevant today because the world’s values have not changed.
The world has always had three basic values in life.
These three elements of worldliness are illustrated in the sin of Eve.
1) The tree was good for food; that is the lust of the flesh.
2) The tree was pleasant to the eyes; that is the lust of the eyes.
3) It was a tree to be desired to make one wise; this describes the pride of life.
· These 3 things are what the world says is important.
v Pleasure. Pleasure is a primary value in this world. (the lust of the flesh)
v Possessions. (The lust of the eyes)
v Prestige. That is: power or position or popularity. (The pride of life)
If you ask most people, “What do you want out of life?” They’ll say, “I want to have fun…. I want to be happy … I want to feel good.”
· Pleasure, just different ways of saying it. We live in a pleasure-obsessed culture.
· Possessions. It’s been said that we often fall into the category of buying things we don’t need, with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t know!
For many people self worth is based on their net worth. Possessions is the second value in our society.
· Prestige. In most western countries, image is everything.
We’re very status conscious. We want people to look up to us.
We want people to think we’re important and successful and when that happens, we have value. We’re very status conscious.
The problem is this: the media so bombards us with these values – pleasure, possession, prestige – over and over that even Christians get seduced by it.
We think like everybody else that those are the ultimate values of life.
And the result is that for many Christians their values are no different than those of an atheist?
ROMANS 12:2 “Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.”
So the first step in building a foundation is choose your source. Where am I going to get my values from? Now, obviously as Christians, the best place to get your values from is from the Word of God.
Make a decision: The WORD or the WORLD?
The second step is:
2. CLARIFY WHAT IS IMPORTANT V. 16
I want to encourage you to make a list of your values. Make a list of what you consider to be the most important things in life and then evaluate them in the scripture (source).
Do this for a couple of reasons:
v You need to do this because most of the values that you have you didn’t choose. You just assimilated them without thinking as you grew up.
You picked them up from people all around you.
Some of them you got were good and some of them weren’t so good.
You didn’t automatically sit down and choose the value. You just automatically accepted it. You’ve never really thought them through.
v You need to write out your values because we rarely think about our values until we have a crisis. Then, all of a sudden, a crisis occurs and everything hits the fan …… bankruptcy, divorce, major illness, death of a loved one …… and then you start asking questions: “What am I here for? Or “What really is the purpose of my life? Or “What should I do?” OR “What is right & wrong?”
Knowing what you value most is so important that we all need to do something about it. EX: Is it more important about how you feel about something or what God’s word says about something?
With the Presidential election coming into our daily lives through the news:
You will vote for the person or party that is closest to your values – eg: if your sole focus is on making money, you will vote for the party that will best meet that value! Correct? / What about if you want to vote for the first women? A professing mormon, a former
So here is some homework to do during the week.
Sit down with a pen and paper and ask yourself these questions:
v What is important to you?
Then make a list of five or more important values that you want to build your life on.
v What is your definition of success?
Success to me is…………… and have it written out.
Why is that important?
Because if you don’t come up with a personal definition of success, other people will define it for you.
Real success is when you decide what values are important to God’s will for your life and you bring your life into alignment with them.
Decide what matters most.
Look at it from eternity, standing at the judgment day and looking back on your life. Ask this question, “What is going to last?” What’s going to last for eternity?
If you apply that question, “What’s going to last?” to the world’s value system of pleasure, possession and prestige, HEBREWS 11:25 says Moses refused to be called Pharaoh’s son but align himself with the people of God rather than enjoy the passing pleasure of sin.
Sin may be fun for a while but the Bible clearly teaches that the pleasure of sin will soon fade away: Do we truly believe that?
Possessions aren’t going to last.
1 TIMOTHY 6:7 ”We brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out.”
Prestige:
MARK 10:31 “Many who have the highest place now will have the lowest place in the future.” And the next part of the verse says, “and many who have the lowest place now will have the highest place in the future.”
In ECCLESIASTES King Solomon says, “I have the money and I have the power to do anything I want to do in life and so I did. I experienced every pleasure, I amassed every possession and I gained all the prestige in the world that I could gain. I did it all. I tried it all. I tried food and I tried sex and I tried achievement.”
"Meaningless! Meaningless!" "Utterly meaningless!"
Church the bottom line is this, 1 JOHN 3:17 “The world and its desires [the values of the world] will pass away but those who do the will of God will live forever.”
> You choose your source – where am I going to get my values, the Word or the World.
> Then you evaluate what’s important
3. CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYLE (man who does the will of God) V.17
Now that you have chosen your source and clarified what is important, you next need to bring all of that together and, if necessary, adjust your lifestyle to do the will of God.
If you want to truly focus on changing your life, there are three main areas that you can focus on: time, money, and relationships.
A. My time needs to reflect what I say is really important.
B. My money needs to support my priorities of life
C. My relationships need to reflect God’s instructions (God/Family, etc.)
PSALM 119:37 “Turn my eyes away from worthless things.”
That would be a good verse to put on your Refrigerator or mirror. Eliminate the things that don’t matter.
EPHESIANS 4:17 (NIV) “I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.”
THE MESSAGE translates it as, “Stop going along with the mindless crowd. That’s no life for you. Get rid of it. Then take on an entirely new way of life, a God fashioned life, renewed from the inside and working out into your conduct, as God reproduces His character in you.” It starts with a shift in values.
Now I know that some of you are thinking, “I’d like to change. (BUT)
You cannot do it w/o Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit in you:
God gives you the power to do what He wants you to do.
You can’t do this on your own. YOU NEED GOD’S POWER.
PHILIPPIANS 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
With Jesus & the Holy Spirit in your lives you have what you need to grow more like Jesus as he desires:
But the tragedy is most of us never get serious about changes in our lives until it’s too late.
Please don’t wait until it’s too late to start looking at where the values you’ve been living by are taking you. Don’t wait until you say,
“I wish I’d done that different.” Or “If only……”
So to change your values you need to:
“Choose your source” – “Clarify what’s important” – “Change your lifestyle” and do one final thing:
4. CHECK MY VALUES DAILY
PROVERBS 4:23
“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”
What does it mean to keep your heart with all diligence?
It means you do the things that are true and right and of value and worth to God.
1 TIMOTHY 4:16 "Keep a close watch on all you do and think. Stay true to what is right and God will bless you and use you to help others.” If you’re serious about changing, you’re going to have to look at and test your values on a regular basis.
Tonight, I pray you have been challenged by the Holy Spirit to look carefully at your life and re-assess its direction and priorities.
If God is speaking to your heart respond to Him. Do not let this moment slip away! Do something with it!
In Paul’s letter to his disciple Timothy, he challenges him to be careful about something.
1 TIMOTHY 6:20 “Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith.”
It is the will of God that delivers us from the temptation of passing things & the world.
This, incidentally, was the life verse of D. L. Moody, the great evangelist, and is inscribed on his tombstone: “He who does the will of God abides forever.” [1]
Hebrews 2:1-4
For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, 4 God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
In the Beginning Was the Word
In chapter 1 of Hebrews there are no commands for the church. We are not told to do anything. The whole chapter is a declaration and celebration of God's final word to the world—Jesus Christ the Son of God. The chapter begins, "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in his Son." This is the point of chapter 1: something utterly stupendous happened in the coming of the Son of God.
This is Hebrews' way of saying what John said in his gospel, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God . . . and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:1, 14). In other words, God the Son took on human form as God's final, decisive Word to the world. Not final in that God has not spoken since then, but final and decisive in that, since Jesus came, all that God has to say is rooted in Jesus, and points toward Jesus, and is proven by conformity to Jesus. All the fullness of God is in Jesus (Colossians 2:9). All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Jesus (Colossians 2:3). Beyond what the Old Testament told us, whatever we need to know about God and how he relates to our lives we learn from what we hear and see in God's final, decisive Word, Jesus Christ.
That's what Hebrews 1 is all about: this final word of God, Jesus Christ. In summary, chapter 1 says that the Son of God is the heir of all things (v. 2), he made the world (v. 2), he is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of God's nature (v. 3), he upholds all things by the word of his power (v. 3), he made purification for sins (v. 3), he sat down at the right hand of God's majesty (v. 3), and he is greater than any angel (v. 4) because angels worship him (v. 6). He is the mighty God (v. 8).
That's the message of chapter 1: God has spoken by his Son and this Son is Creator and Sustainer and Owner and Ruler and Redeemer of the world. There are no commands for us here. Only declaration and celebration of the greatness of Jesus, the final Word of God.
The First Command in Hebrews—Listen!
But in chapter 2 the first thing is a command or a duty—something we must do. And the connection with chapter 1 is very important. Chapter 2 begins, "For this reason . . . " (or: some versions have, "therefore"). In other words chapter 2 begins by telling us that chapter 1 is the reason for this duty. Because God has spoken by his Son in these last days, and because he is the Creator and Sustainer and Owner and Ruler and Redeemer of the world—above all angels—therefore ("for this reason . . . ") "we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard."
So the first command in this book—the first duty mentioned—is that we give heed to the Word of God in his Son. We could boil down the two chapters so far to this: "In these last days God has spoken to us by a Son . . . for this reason we must pay closer attention to this word that he has spoken." In other words, God has spoken by his Son, so listen, listen very carefully.
Now here is a command that we need desperately to hear in our day. What do you listen to? Whom do you listen to? God has spoken through his Son, do you listen to him? How does your listening to him compare to your listening to other things? When we want to listen to someone, we make provisions for listening. If we want to listen to a musical group, we make sure that we have a tape player in the car and that we have the tapes. If we want to listen to the news, we make sure there is a radio in the kitchen or that we have a TV and that we have it turned on at the right time. If we want to listen to a missionary who is in a critical situation overseas, we make arrangements to have email and pick up our mail often during the day. If we want to listen to John Grisham tell his latest tale, we buy a paperback in the airport and have it with us on the airplane.
On and on it goes. We all want to listen to something. And we make plans for our listening and we buy things and go places and make sure we are not distracted. So how does all this compare to our listening to God's Word to us in his Son? Are you listening to that? Are you making provisions for that? Are your kitchen and your car and your den and your reading devoted to that?
It Is Exceedingly Necessary
What Hebrews is saying here is that in the Christian life we must go on listening to God's Word in Jesus. And we must do this with very close attention. We cannot treat this casually. We cannot act as if we already know all we need to know, or that we have nothing to gain from listening to Jesus. There is an urgency here in Hebrews 2:1. Literally it says, "It is exceedingly necessary that we give heed to what we have heard." It is not just an option that you can do if you are especially spiritual or have a crisis in front of you or if you are at camp or if you need to prepare some lesson. This is a word to all Christians: it is "exceedingly necessary to give heed" to Jesus as the Word of God.
This is not an isolated command in the book of Hebrews. This concern to get the readers to wake up and listen closely to God is repeated. For example, Hebrews 3:1 says, "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus." Consider Jesus! That's the point of Hebrews 2:1. Listen to him. Consider him. Focus on him. Stay close to him and keep him in your thoughts. Learn more and more from him every day—what he is like and what he says and the way he sees the world.
Then again in Hebrews 12:1–2 the author says, "Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus." There it is again: "Fix your eyes on Jesus." Consider Jesus! Listen to Jesus!
One of the great burdens of this book is that we the readers will see how serious it is to listen to Jesus, the Word of God, and consider Jesus, and fix our eyes on Jesus. This is the first commandment in the book. It is not a difficult command: Listen! Consider! Look! These are not hard things to do—unless we don't want to do them. The first command of this book is not "labor for Jesus," but "listen to Jesus." He is not commanding us to work for him, but to watch him. All our spiritual life-changes come from that (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Pay Attention, so You Don't Neglect Such a Great Salvation
And the whole first chapter is intended to make this a light burden and an easy yoke. The one we are to pay close attention to is the Creator and Sustainer and Owner and Ruler and Redeemer of the world. And what he has to say to us is a "very great salvation." Do you see that in verse 3: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" So if we choose not to listen to Jesus every day and consider him and fix our eyes on him, then we are scorning his importance described in chapter 1 and we are neglecting a "great salvation." Now why would anybody want to do that? The only reason would be if we regard something else as more important to listen to and consider and fix our eyes on. But what distinguishes a Christian from a non-Christian is that a Christian has been born again with a new nature that regards Christ as supremely valuable. And so we find the argument of chapter 1 powerfully compelling. God has spoken in these last days by a Son . . . For this reason we must listen and we want to listen all the more closely to what he says.
The Christian life is first and foremost a life of contemplation—listening to Jesus, considering Jesus, fixing the eyes of the heart on Jesus. Everything else in the Christian life grows out of this. Without this the Christian life is simply unlivable.
This is why the next phrase in verse 1 is a warning: " . . . lest we drift away from it." "For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." The first reason for paying close attention to what we have heard in God's word through his Son is that the Son is infinitely greater than angels: Creator, Sustainer, Owner, Ruler, Redeemer. Therefore how could you not want to be vigilant in listening and considering and fixing your eyes on him?
Pay Attention, so You Don't Drift into Destruction
Now comes a second reason for paying close attention to what we have heard of God's Word through his Son: if we don't do this, we will drift into destruction. Consider this word "drifting." It means float by. It's what a piece of bark or a leaf or a dead fish does in the river—it floats by the boat that is being rowed up stream. It takes no life and no motion to float by. One need only do nothing, and you will float by.
Hebrews says that if we do not vigilantly pay closer attention to the Word of God, we will float by—we will drift away from God's Word. We all know people that this has happened to. Some are in this room. Some are reading this sermon. There is no urgency. No vigilance. No focused listening or considering or fixing the eyes on Jesus. And the result has not been a standing still, but a drifting away.
That is the point here: there is no standing still. The life of this world is not a lake. It is a river. And it is flowing downward to destruction. If you do not listen earnestly to Jesus and consider him daily and fix your eyes on him hourly, then you will not stand still, you will go backward. You will float by.
Drifting is a deadly thing in the Christian life. And the remedy to it, according to Hebrews 1, is, "Pay close attention to what you have heard." That is, consider what God is saying in his Son Jesus. Fix your eyes on what God is saying and doing in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. This is not a hard stroke to learn so that we can swim against the stream of sin and indifference. The only thing that keeps us from swimming like this is our sinful desire to float with other interests. But let us not complain that God has given us a hard job. Listen, consider, fix the eyes—this is not what you would call a hard job description. It is not a job description. It is a solemn invitation to be satisfied in Jesus so that we do not get lured downstream by deceitful desires.
Our "Job" Is to Be Satisfied with the Love of God
One of the most powerful words to me in Kenya as I was teaching was the simple prayer in Psalm 90:14, "O satisfy us in the morning with your lovingkindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." That is our "job" as Christians: being satisfied in the morning with the love of God spoken to us in the Son of God, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days—and so be free from the deceitfulness of downriver desires.
O the danger of drifting away from the word of God's promise in Jesus Christ!
Verses 2 and 3a tell us why this is so dangerous.
For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
Failing to pay close attention to God's Word and the drifting away that results is described in verse 3 as "neglecting a great salvation." And this is said to be extremely dangerous.
How dangerous? So dangerous that if we go on in the way of neglecting this great salvation—not listening to Jesus day by day, and not considering Jesus, and not fixing our eyes on Jesus—the result will be that we will not escape. That is, we will not escape the judgment of God (Hebrews 12:25; 1 Thessalonians 5:3). We will be lost. We will not inherit eternal life. We will perish in hell.
Drifting Is Infinitely Dangerous
Drifting is infinitely dangerous. O that I could waken you all to be joyfully vigilant in living the Christian life of looking to Jesus, and considering Jesus, and listening to Jesus. His yoke is easy and his burden is light—as easy as listening and as light as looking. But if we neglect this great salvation, and drift into the love of other things, then we will not escape. We will perish. The mark of the true child of God is that that he does not drift for long. If you are drifting this morning, one of the signs of hope that you are born again is that you feel pricked for this—a rising desire in your heart to turn your eyes on Jesus and consider him and listen to him in the days and months and years to come. And one of the signs that you may not be born again is that you hear what I am saying and feel no desire to guard against drifting.
The argument given in verse 2 for why we will not escape if we drift and neglect our great salvation is that "The word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense." In other words, in the Old Testament God did not yet speak directly through his Son on the earth. He spoke through intermediary messengers. Hebrews says angels were involved in the revelation of God's Word. Nevertheless, the firmness of this mediated Word was so great that every neglect and rejection of it was punishable with a just recompense.
Now something much greater has come: God has spoken to us not through angels, but unmediated through a Son. God himself stood forth from heaven in Jesus and spoke a great salvation with his lips and his life and his death. Now, this writer says, if we neglect this great Word, we are much more guilty than the Old Testament people who disobeyed the Word of God given through angels, and therefore we will not escape.
So, as always in the Bible, God graciously is giving us in this book positive and negative incentives to embrace our great salvation and listen to the great Savior. Negatively, he says that we will perish if we drift away from the Word of God and neglect our great salvation. Positively he says that this Word is such that how could anyone not want to listen and linger and live in this Word—the Creator of all things, the Upholder of all things, the Heir of all things, the Ruler of all things from the right hand of Majesty, and the Purifier of all our sins, if we will trust him? How could we not want to pay attention to this Word and consider him and fix our eyes on him!
“Don’t Drift into 2008!”
Hebrews 2:-1-4
“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since athe message declared by angels proved to be reliable and bevery transgression or disobedience received a just cretribution, 3 dhow shall we escape if we eneglect such a great salvation? It was fdeclared at first by the Lord, and it was gattested to us hby those who heard, 4 gwhile God also bore witness iby signs and wonders and various miracles and by jgifts of the Holy Spirit kdistributed according to his will.” ESV
“Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. (2) For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, (3) How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, (4) God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?”
2:1. The truth he had just enunciated has important implications. The therefore shows that this admonition arose directly from the preceding material. Since the Son is so supremely great and is destined for final triumph over His enemies, the readers would do well to pay more careful attention to these realities. The danger is that, if they would not, they might drift away (pararyōmen, a word that occurs only here in the NT). The writer’s audience was marked by immaturity and spiritual sluggishness (cf. 5:11-12), and if this trait were not eliminated there was danger of their slipping away from what they had heard. The author may have had the Septuagint rendering of Proverbs 3:21 in mind, where the Greek translators used the word for “drift away” that is found here: “My son, do not slip away, but keep my counsel and intent.” [2]
2:3 But now the argument moves from the lesser to the greater.
If those who broke the law were punished, what will be the fate of those who neglect the gospel?
The law tells men what they must do; the gospel tells men what God has done.
By the law is the knowledge of sin; by the gospel is the knowledge of salvation.
To neglect so great a salvation is more serious than to transgress the law.
The law was given by God through angels, to Moses and then to the people.
But the gospel was spoken directly by the Lord Jesus Himself.
Not only so, it was confirmed to the early Christians by the apostles and by others who heard the Savior. [3]
2:4 God Himself authenticated the message by signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Signs were those miracles of the Lord and of the apostles which signi fied spiritual truths. For example, the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:1–14) formed the basis of the discourse on the Bread of Life which followed (John 6:25–59). Wonders were miracles which were intended to arouse amazement in the spectators; the raising of Lazarus illustrates this (John 11:1–44). Miracles were any displays of supernatural power which contravened the laws of nature. Gifts of the Holy Spirit were special enablements given to men to speak and act in a manner that was completely beyond their natural abilities.
The purpose of all these miracles was to attest to the truth of the gospel, especially to the Jewish people, who traditionally asked for some sign before they would believe. There is some evidence that the need of confirmatory miracles ceased when the NT became available in written form. But it is impossible to prove conclusively that the Holy Spirit never duplicates these miracles in other ages.
The words according to His own will indicate that these miraculous powers are given out by the Holy Spirit as He chooses. They are sovereign gifts of God. They cannot be demanded by men, or claimed in answer to prayer, because God has never promised them to all. [4]
In chapter two the writer pauses in his presentation of Jesus as superior to every thing and everyone to give one of the five great warnings (danger signals) in Hebrews). These six danger signals can be likened to highway markers to warn the reader. These danger signals are as follows:
Peril of drifting, (2:1–4)
Peril of doubting, (3:7–4:2)
Peril of dullness, (5:11–6:20)
Peril of despising, (10:26–39)
Peril of (defying) denying, (12:15–29)
[J. Vernon McGee. Thru The Bible Commentary. (electronic ed. -1997). (Nashville: Thomas Nelson: Nashville, 1981)]
If (lit. since) the message of Angels is not to be ignored, how much more so, that which is received from the Son! Having established the clear superiority of Jesus over the Angels he urges his readers to pay more careful attention to what they have heard? What have they heard???
We have learned that God’s final revelation has been given by his Son Jesus Christ. If we could boil down all of chapter one and the first four verses of chapter two into a single statement it would be, “In these last days God has spoken to us by his Son… for this reason we must pay close attention to the word He has spoken.”
The writer begins Chapter two with the word “therefore” or “for this reason.” He is tying the subject of the last verse of chapter one to that which is to follow. The last verse of Chapter one stated, that the angels are
“… ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?”(1:14). It is the importance of this free gift of salvation that he wants the readers to focus their attention on! Some in the church of that day were in danger of being blown away from their moorings and drifting away from the truth of Christ.
There are two points of application. There are two groups to whom this has a special application.
First, to those who have never taken the time to accept the gift of salvation or The Danger of Rejecting Salvation.
We believe this warning is to those who have heard the gospel, know the facts about Jesus Christ, know that He died for them, that He desires to forgive their sins, that He can give them new life, but are not willing to confess Him as Lord and Savior. This surely is the most tragic category of people in existence.
I will never forget the lady who came into my office one day, informed me she was a prostitute, and said, “I need help; I’m desperate.” After presenting the claims of Christ to her, I said, “Would you like to confess Jesus Christ as your Lord?” “Yes,” she replied, “I’ve had it.” She was at the bottom and knew it. So she prayed a prayer and seemingly invited Christ into her life. I said, “Now, I want you to do something. Do you have your little book with you that has the names of all your contacts?” When she replied that she did, I suggested, “Let’s take a match and burn it right now.” Looking surprised, she responded, “What do you mean?” “Just what I said,” I explained. “If you really met Jesus Christ as your Lord, if you really accepted His forgiveness and are going to live for Him, let’s burn that book and celebrate your new birth right now and just praise the Lord.” “But it’s worth a lot of money, a lot of money,” she objected. I said, “I am sure it is.” Putting the book back in her purse and looking me in the eye, she said, “I don’t want to burn my book. I guess I really don’t want Jesus, do I?” And she left.
When she counted the cost, she realized she was not ready. I do not know what happened to that dear girl. My heart aches for her and I often think about her. I know that she knew the facts of the gospel and believed them; but she was not willing to make the sacrifice—even though what she refused to give up was worth nothing and what she could have had in Jesus Christ was everything.
/There are many such people. They know the truth, they stand on the edge of the right decision, but they never make it. They just drift. And they are the ones to whom this passage in Hebrews is speaking. The purpose of these four verses is to give such persons a powerful shove toward Jesus Christ. [5] /
Having established that Jesus is superior to everything and everyone, that He is the exalted one, that it was He that purged our sins, that He is the Creator and that He is worthy of worship, it as if the writer could go no further without an invitation to respond. It is as if he is saying, “Jesus is all of this and more, now what are you going to do about it?”
The writer is appealing to the ones who have heard the truth about Jesus and who know it is true, and they know they need Him but who have not yet made a commitment.
Jesus once told a parable speaking to this very problem in (Luke 4:16-24) “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, (17) and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ (18) But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’(19) And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ (20) Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ (21) So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ (22) And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ (23) Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. (24) For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’ ”
Just imagine, too busy to accept the invitation of the king. They all offered excuses. “When I get passed this hurdle, when I get over this struggle, I would love to but, I have other more pressing things right now! Someday! When the time is right! When I get older, but right now I am looking forward to enjoying my life. I will some day. But not today.”
I don’t suppose that anyone ever really intends to miss out of God’s invitation to heaven. Surely no one willful walks away from God’s free offer of forgiveness. But drifting along through life is so quiet, so easy and so damning. All that one must do to go to hell is continue to do nothing.
By the time the letter to the Hebrews was written, countless Jews had heard the gospel, many directly from an apostle. Many, no doubt, were favorably impressed with the message, even intrigued by it. They heard it and perhaps pondered it. But most did not accept it. Jesus’ warning in Luke 9:44, “Let these words sink into your ears,” can apply to the entire gospel. It must get inside of us and make a change in our lives. It is not enough just to hear it. That is only the beginning, as we are reminded in Proverbs: “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their whole body” (4:20–22). When you hear the Word of God, make it yours. Do not drift past it, for that is the most dangerous thing you can do.[6]
Verses 1-4
The apostle proceeds in the plain profitable method of doctrine, reason, and use, through this epistle. Here we have the application of the truths before asserted and proved; this is brought in by the illative particle therefore, with which this chapter begins, and which shows its connection with the former, where the apostle having proved Christ to be superior to the angels by whose ministry the law was given, and therefore that the gospel dispensation must be more excellent than the legal, he now comes to apply this doctrine both by way of exhortation and argument.
I. By way of exhortation: Therefore we ought to give the more diligent heed to the things which we have heard, v. 1. This is the first way by which we are to show our esteem of Christ and of the gospel. It is the great concern of every one under the gospel to give the most earnest heed to all gospel discoveries and directions, to prize them highly in his judgment as matters of the greatest importance, to hearken to them diligently in all the opportunities he has for that purpose, to read them frequently, to meditate on them closely, and to mix faith with them. We must embrace them in our hearts and affections, retain them in our memories, and finally regulate our words and actions according to them.
II. By way of argument, he adds strong motives to enforce the exhortation.
1. From the great loss we shall sustain if we do not take this earnest heed to the things which we have heard: We shall let them slip. They will leak, and run out of our heads, lips, and lives, and we shall be great losers by our neglect. Learn, (1.) When we have received gospel truths into our minds, we are in danger of letting them slip. Our minds and memories are like a leaky vessel, they do not without much care retain what is poured into them; this proceeds from the corruption of our natures, the enmity and subtlety of Satan (he steals away the word), from the entanglements and snares of the world, the thorns that choke the good seed. (2.) Those meet with an inconceivable loss who let gospel truths, which they had received, slip out of their minds; they have lost a treasure far better than thousands of gold and silver; the seed is lost, their time and pains in hearing lost, and their hopes of a good harvest lost; all is lost, if the gospel be lost. [7]
We can in our sanctified imagination see such a man or woman standing before God upon their death saying, “But God, I always have believed you existed. I have tried to live as good life as I could! I never hurt anyone intentionally, at least not very often.” To which the Lord will reply, “Depart from me for I never knew you” (Matt 7:23). Unfortunately it will be just another case of too little, too late.
Secondly, it has application to those are in danger of neglecting the salvation they have received or…. The Danger of Neglecting Their Faith. This passage not only has application for the man who has not accepted the gift of salvation but for the one who is neglecting their faith. In fact this passage is primarily addressed to believers. (v. 1) “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”
Verse three states, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation…”
Therefore we take the remainder of our time to look at the question, “When am I guilty of neglecting my Faith?”
First, I Am Guilty Of Neglecting My Faith When I Continue Hearing Spiritual Truth Without Allowing It to Impact My Life. (v. 1)
“Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”
This vivid warning is written in the
language of the sea, suggesting the image of a ship whose anchor has broken loose from the ocean floor and is dangerously drifting away. This process is not dramatic, nor sudden but insidious and quiet. Drifting is obviously a besetting sin of our own day. The problem is not so much intention as is carelessness and inattention.
The problem is not lack of knowledge, it
not a hearing problem it is a heeding problem. In (Matthew 7:24-27) Jesus says, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: (25) and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. (26) “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: (27) and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
A good example of careless inattention to truth is seen everyday on board any commercial airliner. Before the plane leaves the runway the flight crew goes over the safety instructions; how to fasten the safety belts, how to don the oxygen mask, how to use you seat cushion as floatation device, etc. I already see some of your eyes glazing over. Why is that? Two Reasons. Well if you have traveled by airliner very much, you have heard it all before, many times. And secondly, the need for that information seems too remote to merit our interest.
William Barclay’s translation of this verse is, “Therefore, we must the more eagerly anchor our lives to the things that we have been taught lest the ship of life drift past the harbor and be wrecked.” [William Barclay. The Letter to the Hebrews. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976) p. 21]
When I was in college I had a job with the Corp of Engineers at one of the Lock and Dam’s on the Arkansas River. Several times a year some fisherman’s boat was sucked through one of the gates on the dam simply because they either ignored the posted warnings or they simply drifted too close to the gate to be able to get away from the undertow. No one in their right mind would allow that to happen to them selves deliberately. They simply got busy doing something else and drifted too far to be able to retrieve themselves. The result was almost always complete and utter destruction.
We must keep in mind that there is no such thing as standing still spiritually. Life is not a lake it is a river and it constantly flowing pulling us away from the things of God. We are either moving forward spiritually or we are drifting backward, away from God and the things of God.
I Am Guilty Of Neglecting My Faith When I Continue Hearing Spiritual Truth Without Allowing It to Impact My Life And…
Secondly, I Am Guilty Of Neglecting My Faith When I Begin To Think That My Sin Is No Big Deal! (v. 2) “For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward.”
The argument is that if the law given by God’s messengers the angels proved reliable and brought judgment on those who disobeyed. How much greater must the consequences of disobedience be to those who neglect the message of salvation made through his own son.
Warren Wiersbe tells of hearing the story of “a pastor who preached a series on “the sins of the saints.” He was severely reprimanded by one of the members of the church. Who said, ‘After all sin in the life of a Christian is different from sin in the lives of other people.’ ‘Yes.’ replied the pastor, ‘it is worse.’ ” [Warren Wiersbe. “Be Confident” (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1982) p. 26]
How did we ever get to the point in the Church of today where we think we don’t need to confess our sin anymore? 1 John 1:9 still says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” What does it mean to confess our sins? Literally the word “confess” (homologeo), means “to say the same thing.” You are to say the same thing that God says. When God in His Word says that the thing you did is sin, you are to get over on God’s side and look at it. And you are to say, “You are right, Lord, I say the same thing that You say. It is sin.” That is what it means to confess your sins. This is God’s way for a Christian to deal with sin in his own life.
Go and tell God about it. He wants you to come to Him. Tell Him you have failed. Tell Him you have been wrong. Tell Him that you want to say the same thing about your sin that He says about it. Seek His help. He is your Father. You are in the family. If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins.”
After we confess our sins, what does God do? He cleanses us. When you have confessed your sin, it means that you have turned from that sin. It means that you have said the same thing which God has said. Sin is a terrible thing. God hates it and now you hate it. But confession restores you to your Father. Tell Him your problems. Tell Him your sins. Tell Him your weakness. Confess it all to Him. And say to your Father that you want to have fellowship with Him and you want to serve Him. My, He has made a marvelous, wonderful way back to Himself!
I Am Guilty Of Neglecting My Faith When I Begin To Think That My Sin Is No Big Deal And…
Third, I Am Guilty Of Neglecting My Faith When I Forget Ending Well Is As Important As Beginning Well.
Robert McQuilkin in his poem “Let Me Get Home Before Dark” states what should be every Christian prayer when he says,
“I fear the Dark Spectre may come too soon-
or do I mean, too late?
That I should end before I finish
Or finish, but not well.
That I should, stain your honor, shame your
Name, grieve your loving heart.
Few, they tell me, finish well…
Lord, let me get home before dark.”
[Robert McQuilkin. “Let Me Get Home Before Dark. 1981]
Let me close today with - The Three R’s of Response.
1. Repent of any known sin.
So where do we go from here? What if I have already drifted? Composer Robert Robinson was saved under the mighty ministry of George Whitfield and he wrote the song “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” which says in part
”Bind my wand’ring heart to Thee.
Prone to wander—Lord, I feel it—
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart—O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above” [Logos Hymnal. 1995 (1st edition.). Logos Research Systems, Inc.: Oak Harbor, WA]
In the case of Robinson these words proved very prophetic, because he later drifted from his relationship with the Lord. “He had been greatly used as a pastor, but neglect of spiritual things led him astray. In an attempt to find peace, he began to travel. During one of his journeys he met a young woman who was evidently very spiritually minded.
“What do you think of this hymn I have been reading?’ she asked Robinson, handing him the book. It was his own hymn! He tried to avoid the question but it was hopeless, for the Lord was speaking to him. Finally, he broke down and confessed who he was and how he had been living away from the Lord.
‘But these streams of mercy are still flowing,’ the woman reassured him and through her encouragement, Robinson was restored to fellowship with the Lord.” [Wiersbe. pp. 26-27]
2. Remove those things that hinder our spiritual growth!
3. Return to our first love. (Rev 2:4)
“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. (5)Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works…”
“Dangerous Drifting!”
Hebrews 2:-1-4
“Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.” (2:1)
Two points of application
The Danger of __________ Faith
The Danger of __________ Faith
“When am I guilty of neglecting my Faith?”
First, I Am Guilty Of Neglecting My Faith When I Continue Hearing Spiritual Truth Without Allowing It to _______ My Life.
Secondly, I Am Guilty Of Neglecting My Faith When I Begin To Think That My ______ Is No Big Deal!
Third, I Am Guilty Of Neglecting My Faith When I Forget ________ Well Is As Important As _________ Well.
The Three R’s of Response
R__________
R__________
R__________
----
[1]MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. (1997, c1995). Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments (1 Jn 2:17). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
a See Acts 7:53
b [ch. 10:28; Num. 15:30, 31; Deut. 4:3; 17:2, 5, 12; 27:26]
c ch. 10:35; 11:26
d [ch. 10:28, 29; 12:25]
e Matt. 22:5 (Gk.)
f ch. 1:2
g Mark 16:20; [Acts 5:32]
h [Luke 1:2]
g [See ver. 3 above]
i Acts 2:22, 43
j [1 Cor. 12:4, 11]
k [Eph. 1:5]
NT New Testament
cf. confer, compare
[2]Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-c1985). The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures (2:783). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[3]MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. (1997, c1995). Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments (Heb 2:3). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
NT New Testament
[4]MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. (1997, c1995). Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments (Heb 2:4). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[5]MacArthur, J. (1996, c1983). Hebrews. Includes index. (42). Chicago: Moody Press.
[6]MacArthur, J. (1996, c1983). Hebrews. Includes index. (44). Chicago: Moody Press.
[7]Henry, M. (1996, c1991). Matthew Henry's commentary on the whole Bible : Complete and unabridged in one volume (Heb 2:1). Peabody: Hendrickson.