The Message We Must Not Ignore - 4

And now we open our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 2, having finished our examination of chapter 1. And today we are going to come to one of several warning passages which are found throughout the book of Hebrews. Because when you understand the message of chapter 1, you must act. It's not enough to know. It is required that you put into your life that truth which you have learned.

More is required than an intellectual understanding of truth. When you understand who Christ truly is as He's been presented in chapter 1 better than the angels and throughout the chapter 7 Old Testament texts are cited to show us who He really is. He is in fact the Creator. He is in fact eternal deity.

He is in fact the supreme ruler of the universe. And when you understand that He is the epitome of God's revelation, then you understand how important it is that you pay attention to what He has revealed. And so He who reveals the ultimate and fullest expression of the truth of God, He who by Himself has secured the salvation of which the Old Testament Scriptures point, tells us that we must pay attention to His message.

We are required to respond in repentance and faith to the gospel which He has brought and to fail to do so will bring the most serious consequences upon us. So in Hebrews 2 one through four we have four items to examine. Number one, an exhortation. Number two, a reminder. Number three, a warning. And number four, a confirmation. First of all, an exhortation and that's found in verse 1.

Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away. The exhortation begins with a necessary connection. Therefore, a concluding statement, a concluding word which points us back to chapter one to what has already been said. That chapter that tells us about Christ and now on the basis of that. Therefore, because of who Christ is, because He is God's Son, because angels are commanded to worship Him, because He created the universe, all of these things are found in chapter one.

Because He sits upon the eternal throne of the universe, He is God ruling this universe. Therefore, because of that, this connects to the exhortation that is given and that brings us then to an inescapable conclusion. Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard.

The logic of the passage is obvious. The higher is the rank of the person who speaks to us, the more we are required to pay close attention and to listen to what he says. If a friend tells us something to be polite, we should listen, but that may not particularly carry a lot of weight. If a parent says something to a child, there's a very clear ranking by God that the parent has rank over the child and authority over the child. And therefore, the child must listen more carefully to what the parent says than what they are required to do in listening to what a friend of theirs might say and so forth. If the President of the United States should come into this building and speak to us today, no matter what your politics, no matter what you think of him, you have a responsibility to give him respectful hearing and to listen carefully to what he has to say. His position, his rank requires that of us. And if the God of the universe, ranking higher than the highest angel, has spoken to us, then we better give heed. We must give the more earnest heed to what he says, for the higher the rank, the more necessary is our careful attention to what that person says. And what this one says is more important than anything else that could be said. And what this one says is more important than any other consideration in our lives. We may have important things. We may have things that call our attention.

We may have things that keep us busy. But friends, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing in your life is more important than the message that has been brought to us by Jesus Christ and is being brought before our attention again by the words of Scripture in Hebrews 2.1. Because there is not only an inescapable conclusion that we must give attention to what he says, but there is a warning, there's a sobering possibility. We must give heed to the things which we have heard lest we drift away. Lest we drift away, or that Greek phrase has been translated in some Bibles, lest we let it slip.

Either of those is an accurate translation. Lest we drift away, there the idea is that we are in a boat that's in a stream that's moving rapidly and we have a landing place down the river a ways. And we know where we're supposed to direct to steer the boat when we get to that place so that we can land at the appropriate spot, but we get busy talking and chatting and watching things on the shore and paying attention to other things and zip before we know it. We have drifted away, we have drifted past the designated landing point and now the current makes it difficult if not impossible for us to turn around and go upstream and get back to where we are supposed to be.

That's the idea. We must give careful attention, careful heed to the things which we have heard, lest we drift on past salvation. Lest we drift on past heaven.

Lest we drift on past a good eternal landing. Or the other idea, let it slip, is like through carelessness allowing a valuable ring to slip off our finger and be lost. I read recently about somebody, a real person, who lost their wedding ring, did not know where it was, looked everywhere for it.

I don't know where they eventually found it, but even had their husband, I think, going to the landfill and digging through trash in the landfill trying to find this valuable ring that had slipped off her finger and has been lost. That's the idea. Be careful. Be careful. If that's valuable, then you make sure that it's secure, you don't let it slip off.

Be careful if there is an important landing point as you're merrily going along down the river. Don't be careless and neglect to pay attention to where you are and where you need to be and drift on past that required place and lose your destination. It is possible to neglect the most important message of all, namely the message of salvation. It is possible to lose your most valuable possession, namely your eternal soul. What shall a man or a woman give in exchange for their soul?

Nothing in all the world is as important as that. Therefore, we must give heed to the things that we have heard, lest we drift away. Hell is full of people who did not openly and actively oppose Jesus. They just didn't give very much attention to the gospel. They heard it a little bit. They paid very little attention to it.

They drifted along in life. They said they would pay attention to it later and then they drifted right past the point of no return and they are now in hell because they let this message, the most important message in all the world, they let it slip because they weren't paying careful attention. Is that you? Are any of you in that category? Because some of these people attend church. Some of these people belong to churches. Some of these people are willing to come and be with the people of God and to go through the outward motions of worshipping God, but have not laid hold upon Christ and have not given careful attention to the gospel.

And some, I hate to say it, but it's probably true from what the Bible tells us, some in that category are probably sitting here right now. Is that you? Don't let it slip. An exhortation. Secondly, we come to a reminder in verse two. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward. Here is a reminder first about the work of angels and secondly about the consequences of disobedience. We find a lot of interesting information in the book of Hebrews that you don't find other places.

And this is one of those. If the word spoken through angels proved steadfast or some translations say proved unalterable. And this tells us that angels are not only created for the purpose of guiding and guarding the people of God. And we were told that in Chapter one, verse 14 of the angels. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? Angels have a specially created assignment to watch over God's people. But that's not all. They not only guide and guard God's people, but they also, at least in time past, delivered God's law.

That's what it says. If the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward. This is telling us that the Old Testament law was delivered by angels, at least part of it. Now, that's interesting because you don't find any clear reference to that in the Old Testament scriptures.

That just it's not that it wasn't true, it's just that it wasn't mentioned. We weren't given the details of how exactly God delivered the law to Moses. We do know that in some cases, like on the tablets of stone, God wrote it with his finger on those tablets of stone. We do know of occasions where God audibly spoke to Moses.

But there's an awful lot of law in the Old Testament, pages and pages and pages of it. How did that come to Moses? We're just frankly not told in the Old Testament, but we are here, told exactly how that came to Moses.

How did it come? Angels. God sent angels to deliver it. Unless you think that maybe I'm reading more into this phrase than I ought to, let me give you a couple of other New Testament texts that tell us the same thing. Stephen, the first martyr, as he was defending himself against false accusations and was accusing those who were accusing him of being just like their forefathers who neglected the prophets and the word of God that came to them. And he says in verse 53 of Acts chapter 7, who, speaking of their forefathers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. They received the law, your forefathers, the Old Testament scriptures. They received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. And Paul also reinforces that truth when he says in Galatians 3 19, what purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made and was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. It's been there all along.

You may have skipped over it, never noticed it, paid attention to it. But that's what Paul tells us in Galatians 3 19. And so we know at least the law that we call the law of Moses. We know that that and perhaps more as well, but at least the law that is known as the law of Moses was given to Moses primarily by angels. Moses is the mediator that's referred to by Paul, and he received all of this law by angels who were the messengers who carried it from God to Moses. So we learn this about the work of angels. Not only are they given to guide and protect the saints of God, but at least at times they are sent with the word of God. And a great deal of the Old Testament scripture, certainly the law of Moses, was delivered to Moses by angels.

Surprise, surprise. But there it is very clearly given to us in scripture. But this is a reminder not only about the work of angels, but also about the consequences of disobedience to this law, because it goes on to say, not only the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, but this and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward. The Old Testament law had appropriate penalties for disobedience. You can read about those, of course, in the Old Testament. There are whole chapters in the book of Deuteronomy that lay down the blessings if God's people keep the law, and the curses, the judgments that come upon them if they fail to keep it.

Penalties for neglect, penalties for disobedience, penalties for not obeying the law. The Old Testament law had appropriate penalties for disobedience for neglecting the law that had been delivered by angels. God required obedience from those who heard this word that came to him through angels to Moses and from Moses to them. And God inflicted severe penalties upon those who ignored his word that was delivered by angels to Moses and from Moses to the people of Israel. There are consequences, there were consequences for disobeying the law of God in the Old Testament.

That's the reminder. Then that's followed by a warning that takes up the last part, that takes up the first part of chapter 3, or verse 3 rather. But you have to read it together with verse 2. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast in every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, a fair reward, a deserved reward, that is a punishment, 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? Here's a warning, the first of several very strong warnings in the book of Hebrews.

Those warning passages are often the most difficult ones in the book of Hebrews to interpret properly, but I think they can all be clearly understood if they're taken in the light of the context. This one's really not difficult. Some of the others are a little more difficult. But this one isn't difficult.

It's pretty clear what it's saying. It begins with a consequential question, a rhetorical question. If this is true, that the law that was delivered by angels to the Old Testament people had severe penalties for those who didn't pay attention to it, how shall we escape if we neglect the word that has come to us? How shall we escape? Question.

It requires an answer from you in your mind and your heart to that question. The Old Testament people did not escape consequences for neglecting the law. Do we think we can escape the consequences of neglecting the gospel?

Do you think you can? Virtually every sinner who has heard the gospel and is not willing to come to Christ is convinced that he is going to escape the consequences that that pesky hellfire preacher, the hellfire and brimstone preacher told him about. When people say a hellfire and brimstone preacher, sometimes they have different things in mind. Some people mean the kind of preacher that pounds the pulpit regularly and spits and sputters and stomps around on the platform and comes down into the pew.

In other words, they're thinking more in terms of fiery style. Other people are just talking about a preacher who dares to talk about judgment, who dares to talk about the sinfulness of sin, who dares to talk about the consequences of sin, who dares to talk about hell, and that's often given as if we shouldn't do that. That's a hellfire and brimstone preacher.

We don't like that kind. Well, of course you don't if you're not willing to repent and believe, but you better pay attention. How shall we escape? How shall we escape? If we neglect so great salvation, if we won't pay attention to it, how shall we escape?

Do we think we can do so? This also tells me something that dislodges a myth that many people have, namely that the Old Testament is harsh and full of penalties, but the New Testament is soft and doesn't have any of those penalties. What New Testament are you reading?

Not the same one I've got. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? In this warning, there is a consequential question. There is an incalculable treasure. If we neglect so great a salvation, so great a salvation because it is God's full and final revelation of salvation, because it comes to us at such great cost.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. What cost for this salvation to be given to us? So how shall we escape if we neglect such a great treasure, such a valuable commodity, such a wonderful salvation?

It is an incalculable treasure. It is a superior revelation. We are told of this salvation, this great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord. At the first began to be spoken by the Lord. What God said is the Gospel was introduced in its fullness by Christ. At the first began to be spoken by the Lord. In the first century, when Jesus walked upon the earth, the Gospel in its fullness was first introduced, was first proclaimed.

Now, we have to be careful that we don't misunderstand this, but I think we also have to be careful that we don't neglect what is being said here. I know that you can find the Gospel in the Old Testament, thank God. I know that Old Testament saints were saved by believing the promises of God. They believed, in essence, the Gospel, and yet they didn't believe it quite the way we do because they didn't have it the way we do.

They didn't have the full revelation. They were basically saved, we might accurately say, by believing the Word of God, what had been delivered, but it hadn't all been delivered yet. They were saved by believing the promises of God that He would save, and they trusted Him for that. Their faith got counted for righteousness, but the fullness of that hadn't been delivered yet. And so on the one hand, we don't want to act as if the Old Testament doesn't have Gospel. It's something other than Gospel, and then the Gospel began in the New Testament.

But on the other hand, I think we have to be careful that we don't just take a steamroller to both Testaments and flatten them out as if they are the same. There's a clear priority indicated in these verses. And the full revelation of the Gospel was first spoken by the Lord, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ and His earthly ministry.

And this superior messenger for this revelation of God about salvation indicates a superior message. Was the truth delivered by angels wonderful truth? Yes. Was it God's Word? Yes. Was it a saving truth to those who believed it? Yes. Was it the Gospel of Christ? Well, yes and no.

In part, but not in full. We now have a full and superior message indicated by the fact that it was delivered by a superior messenger. Not angels, but the Son of God.

Not prophets, but God's eternal Son. And the whole point is this. If those who received what we now understand to be an inferior level of revelation, an inferior understanding of the Gospel, an inferior level of the Word of God, if those who neglected that received severe judgment, severe consequences for their neglect, how shall we escape if we neglect so much greater salvation, which was delivered by the Son of God Himself? Do you think we shall escape consequences? Do you think we shall escape judgment? Do you think we shall slip by and somehow escape hell?

Don't be deceived. Those who neglect the Gospel will suffer great consequences as a result. How about you? Again, who's here today who has heard the Gospel, but has not truly embraced it? Who has heard about the greatness of Jesus Christ, but has not truly bowed the knee to this One, who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Who is here who has heard the Gospel that sinners, we are all sinners, and the only way for us to be cleansed from our sins is to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and repentance? You've heard that, but somehow you brushed it aside and you've justified it and said, I'm not such a great sinner. I don't have to be too concerned about that. Oh, dear friend, hear this warning.

Hear this warning. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord Himself? This brings us, number four, to a confirmation. There is a confirmation of the word that was spoken by the Lord.

And that's in the last part of verse three and in verse four. The salvation which first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. God also bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will, a confirmation. And what we have is apostolic proclamation and apostolic certification. It was first spoken by the Lord, the writer of Hebrews says, and then was confirmed. That which was spoken of the Lord was confirmed to us, the writer of Hebrews and his first century readers to whom he is writing. It was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, those who heard the Lord, those who heard Jesus Christ.

Apostolic proclamation. Jesus spoke the gospel in its full revelation first. His chosen messengers then proclaimed it to others. Proclaim it to others, including the author of Hebrews and his first century readers. But does that mean everybody who heard Jesus speak on the earth was thereafter an authorized messenger in the sense that is being spoken of here? No, because the text goes on to speak of a special divine confirmation of those messengers who were chosen, prepared, commissioned, and certified to speak the words of Christ and to speak them accurately. God identified who those were, his authorized messengers. Not every hearer of Jesus Christ was an authorized proclaimer in the sense that is being spoken of here. Now everyone had the privilege of telling others and many of them did. They heard the Lord Jesus Christ and they went and told their friends and brought them to Jesus and went back to their villages and told them about Jesus.

Witnessed about what they heard like we can do, like we should do, like we must do. But there were some who were given special commission, special authority, special position in this spread of the gospel that was first proclaimed by Jesus. And God identified who those ones were. Not every hearer was an authorized proclaimer. Not everyone who claimed to speak for Christ was actually authorized to do so. Anybody can claim it, but not everyone can demonstrate that he has been so authorized by Christ. So how were the authorized proclaimers identified?

There was apostolic proclamation, but how do we know who were the authorized apostles, the apostolic confirmation? Well, God tells us in verse four, God also bearing witness to these certified proclaimers, we call them apostles. God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. Signs and wonders. That phrase is found a total of 12 times in the New Testament, one of them right here, of course.

So that leaves us 11. Nine of the remaining 11 are found in the first 15 chapters of the book of Acts. There was a lot of signs and wondering going on in the early chapters of the book of Acts, because these authorized gospel proclaimers were going out proclaiming the gospel with divine certification, with the authentication that God gave to certify that these are my authorized servants. You must listen carefully to them. They are commissioned by Christ. They speak the word of Christ. They represent Christ. You can be confident in what they have to say.

Who are they? They're the ones who do the healings. They're the ones who perform the miracles.

They're the ones who demonstrate these signs and wonders. We're not surprised, therefore, that Paul calls these signs in 2 Corinthians 12, 12, the signs of an apostle. Truly, the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you, Paul says to the Corinthians, in defending the charges by critics and false teachers who are trying to undermine his apostolic authority and get people to believe that Paul was not a genuine apostle. And Paul says, yes, I was.

And I'll tell you how you can know. Truly, the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance in signs and wonders. Now we have another one. So let's see.

We've only got one left. We've got nine in the first 15 chapters of Acts, use of that phrase signs and wonders, one here in Hebrews, one here in 2 Corinthians. Truly, the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. Pretty similar to what the writer of Hebrews is talking about here. God bearing witness both with signs and wonders, various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his will. Sounds pretty much like the signs and wonders and mighty deeds that Paul says were the signs of an apostle.

How could the Corinthians know that Paul was truly an authorized apostle of Christ? He had the power to heal. He had the power to perform miracles. He had done that on many occasions.

They had witnessed that. Let's see you do that, Mr. False Teacher. I don't mean claim to do it.

I mean actually do it. Where are the people you have healed? Where are the miracles you have performed? Where is the certification that you are a true messenger of Christ? Where is the divine authentication that God has called and commissioned you to be an apostle of Christ?

Where is it? The signs of an apostle proved that Paul was an apostle. Now that in itself should tell us something. I didn't mean to get into this quite this early.

I've got it reserved for a couple more minutes away. But if those signs are still going on today, they must still be authenticating apostles today. Who are the apostles today that these special signs and wonders are authenticating today?

When you've got that figured out, come and tell me. Signs and wonders, miracles, gifts of the Holy Spirit. Which were, as the writer of Hebrews tells us here, assigned by God according to His will. Nobody gets these according to their will, according to their desire. You can't pray long enough. You can't tarry at the altar long enough.

You can't do anything sufficiently enough to get one of these gifts. God sovereignly bestows them when and where it pleases Him. And God doesn't give them to everybody. The Scripture is clear about that. Read carefully 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. Read carefully 1 Corinthians 12 and 11. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, speaking about the gifts of the Spirit, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

Not as the Christian wills, but as He, God the Holy Spirit, wills. And so first century hearers could know who spoke the truth by their exercise of sign gifts. That was God's confirmation, the special power. When they worked miracles like Jesus worked, they identified themselves as those who had been authorized by Jesus as His representatives. The apostles of Christ worked the same or similar miracles as Jesus Christ, proving that they were apostles of Christ. That's what first century hearers could do to know who was a true and who was not a true apostle of Christ.

21st century hearers, that's us, can know who speaks truth by how accurately they handle Scripture. You don't need the signs and the wonders because you've got it all now in the Bible. The New Testament wasn't written yet when these signs and wonders were in operation.

It was hardly begun. New Testament hearers couldn't go to the New Testament Scriptures to check out, to compare what way we're hearing with what was written of New Covenant, New Testament truth in the Scriptures. And so they had this other way of certifying who to listen to and who not to hear. But now that the Scriptures have been completed, we have something that Peter says is even a more sure word. The Scriptures, we can go to the Word of God, we can go to the Scriptures, we can compare them. And if the person we're listening to, we realize, is carefully and truthfully and accurately representing and proclaiming what the Bible says, and we know he's a faithful messenger of God, we can and should listen to him. If he's not, then we shouldn't pay him any attention. But of course that requires some work on our part.

Some people aren't real anxious to do anything that looks like work. This calls for discernment. And we only gain discernment as we learn the Word of God. We have to know the Scriptures in order to know who's teaching the Scriptures accurately, to some degree at least. And therefore those who are unable to understand the Word will be deceived. The natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him, neither indeed can he know them because they are spiritually understood. There are some who are unable to understand the Word of God, so they are inevitably going to be deceived by false teachers.

But Christians even, who neglect the Word of God, who don't apply themselves to it, who don't learn it, who aren't interested in growing in grace, who are just interested in going to church and getting an emotional high, and that's good enough, we sang about Jesus, we talked about Jesus, that's all I need, you are subject to a certain measure of deception too. How are you going to know who's telling the truth? How are you going to know who's accurately representing God? You better have discernment that comes from the Scriptures.

Now I come to my concluding lessons. And the first one is about the human authorship of Hebrews. Who wrote Hebrews? We talked about that earlier, but I said when we get here, we'll talk about it in a little more detail. Did the Apostle Paul write the book of Hebrews?

Absolutely not. It's clear from the passage we are looking at today that whoever wrote this book did not hear the gospel directly from Jesus. He says so. 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? He's one, could we call it generation, removed from Jesus Christ. He's got a generation of apostles between him and Christ. Those who heard Christ proclaimed the word which he heard and received, but he did not hear it from Jesus Christ.

Could that be Paul? No, that would directly contradict what Paul claims and insists about himself, namely that he received it directly from Christ. Galatians 1-11, but I make known to you brethren that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, that is by men, but it came through the revelation of Christ. Every authentic apostle of Christ received his message directly from Christ. And though Paul calls himself an apostle born out of deuces and he came about in a little bit different way, nevertheless the same thing is true of him. He received his message directly from Christ, not from any other person. He didn't get it from Peter, he didn't get it from John, he didn't get it from any other apostles. He got it from Jesus Christ himself. He was an apostle.

But the writer of Hebrews didn't get his message directly from Christ. He got it indirectly from somebody else who got it from Christ. He got it from Peter. He got it from Paul, probably Paul.

He got it from an apostle of Christ. Therefore, he could not be, this book could not have been authored by the apostle Paul. I'm sometimes a little bit amused by the whole debate about who wrote Hebrews and particularly did Paul write Hebrews because sometimes when I read the people who are debating this, it's like they say, well, these things that are said sound a whole lot like Paul. And then there's some other things that are said that sound not so much like Paul.

So we have to kind of weigh, you know, put them on the scales. Are there more things that sound like Paul or are there more things that sound not like Paul? We'll figure it out that way.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You might have a hundred things that sound like Paul, but nevertheless could be said by somebody else. Maybe who knew Paul, maybe who ran in Paul's circles. The references to Timothy, the references to prison and a lot of other references that sound like Paul. You could have a hundred things that sound like Paul, but if you've got one thing that says it can't be Paul, that cancels out all the rest. That's just, isn't that obvious? It can't be Paul.

Sorry. And some great men of God down through the years have said, I think it's Paul. They haven't looked at it quite as carefully as I'm laying it before you this morning. And so this passage tells us not who the human author of Hebrews is, but it tells us clearly who it wasn't.

It wasn't Paul. Secondly, this passage tells us something about the present day exercise of sign gifts. That's a big subject. A lot could be said.

I don't have time to say much. But the question is, those who claim to be exercising sign gifts today, the question for them is, what biblical purpose does that serve today? As far as I can find, there are really only two statements in scripture that give us the purpose for the sign gifts. In 1 Corinthians 14, 22, Paul tells us that tongues, one of the sign gifts, are a sign not for those who believe, but for those who believe not. In this context, he makes it clear tongues were given as a sign to unbelieving Israel that the judgment of God had fallen. It links back to Old Testament passages to talk about God going to judge his people by letting them hear languages of people of another tongue. In other words, carried away into Babylonian captivity, for example, and they're going to hear languages they don't understand.

That's God's judgment. And the speaking of tongues in the first century was a warning to Jews who are not listening to the gospel that the judgment of God was going to fall in a similar way to what it did in the Old Testament when they were judged by people who spoke a foreign language. That's one purpose.

And what's the second purpose? Signs of an apostle, the one we talked about today. They authenticate who the apostles were. Are there any other statements about the purpose of sign gifts? There may be some I'm overlooking, but that's the question you've got to ask. Do they serve a biblical purpose?

If they don't, then how can they be valid and genuine gifts of the Spirit today? I move on. Because this passage also teaches us something important about the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament. And I only have time to just read through my statements and let it go at that.

So here I go. The Old Testament is true and valuable. It is God's word by God's approved messengers. But the New Testament is more complete and therefore more valuable. The New Testament is God's word communicated not by angels or prophets, but by God's son and those that he authorized to speak for him. The Old Testament has many warnings and consequences of divine judgment. The New Testament has the same, even more so because of its greater value. You think the Old Testament is more harsh and judgmental than the New Testament? You've got it backwards according to this text. The New Testament does not give us a softer, more gentle God than the Old Testament.

It's the same God, the same grace, the same salvation, the same judgments, but in the New Testament greater privileges and therefore greater responsibilities. That brings me to the final application, which is the point, the main point of all of this, the danger of the careless neglect of your soul. Hear these words. Heed this warning. Give attention to the state of your soul. Do not neglect so great a salvation. Do not drift past the point of no return.

Do not let such a valuable thing slip away from you. Give careful heed to the word of God, shall we pray. Father, thank you for giving us your word. Thank you for giving us this portion that we have looked at this morning. Father, we pray now by your Holy Spirit apply it powerfully to every heart and life as we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.