Acting on What God has Revealed (Part A)

Must become aggressive. The righteous must be bold as a lion in the face of such things. But this was what Paul was saying. Don't be cheated out of your faith.

Here, the writer to the Jewish believers is warning them not to cheat themselves. The world wasn't cheating them. They were cheating themselves. They were going backwards instead of forwards. Backsliding. Even. They were careless.

They were becoming more and more careless. But for now, here's Pastor Rick in Hebrews chapter 2, as he begins a new study called Acting on what God has revealed. 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? God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. For he has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels.

But one testified in a certain place saying, What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor. And set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he put all in subjection under him.

He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not see all things put under him. But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with the glory and honor that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone. Acting on the revealed word, that's where the writer is going with this. He had taken up what we know as the first chapter with making his case as far as the superiority of Christ goes compared to angels and everyone else. And now he starts off with therefore. And he is saying because of all that I just said to you about who this Jesus is, we should listen up.

We should act upon what we have been taught. And the problem with the Hebrews at this time whom he is writing to, not all the Hebrews but the ones that were struggling with their identity. They didn't know who they were or they were at least being tempted or drawn backwards. They did not know that Christ was enough. They began to tinker with thoughts that there needed to be some other things to add to their faith. So the writer is going to deal with this.

He is dealing with it and he will throughout this letter or this document. But think of what Jesus said about going through such struggles. When something new comes our way, are we going to resist it simply because it's new or are we going to consider the truth and subject ourselves to truth whether something is new or not? And so he put it this way in Matthew 9. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patch pulls away from the garment and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, the wineskins are ruined.

But they put new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved. And so what he was telling those Jews in his day that when God does a work, a fresh work, do not resist it simply because you are determined to remain in your old ways. But consider the truth and be open to what God is saying.

And if not, you're going to burst. And these Jews that the writer is addressing here where many of them were struggling with just that, looking back at Judaism and away from Christ, wanting to go to the altar and offer a sheep or a goat instead of realizing that Christ on the cross fulfilled all the sacrifices of which those sacrifices spoke of his coming. And so verse 2 again, therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.

Well, if you lose interest, you will drift if you do not see the value, if you do not understand the glory that belongs to the things of Christ, of course, you're going to drift. And the fact that Jesus is God the Son, God the Creator of the universe over angels whom he created, over mankind whom he has created, is that not enough reason to listen to him? That's what he is telling them since he is the indisputable Lord of glory. It would be foolish to not listen to him, to not act upon what you have heard.

Mark put it this way, Jesus speaking, Mark recording it. What will a man give in exchange for his soul? Will you give up something and go to hell for it?

Is really that thing that you are chasing after worth losing your soul for? Well, this was the case with the Hebrews, he's going to intensify this, he's going to put pressure on them, it's the pressure of truth. He does this to this day. Paul had warned the Gentile believers to not be cheated from their faith. We see this all the time. Young children grow into young adults, they grow up in the church singing songs of love to the Lord, going to the teen ministries, serving in the church, only to go to the universities and be cheated, be ripped off, gypped and get nothing back for it. I'm not saying we see it here all the time, but it is taking place often, too often, in churches, in this church included, around the world. So we have to fight, not give up to that, not run and say, well, we can't beat this thing. We must become aggressive, the righteous must be bold as a lion in the face of such things.

But this is what Paul was saying. Don't be cheated out of your faith. Here, the writer to the Jewish believers is warning them not to cheat themselves. The world wasn't cheating them, they were cheating themselves. They were going backwards instead of forwards, backsliding even.

They were careless, they were becoming more and more careless. And we'll get to that in verse 3. But before we do, I want to remind us of some words that Jesus said. Mark chapter 4, verse 24, Jesus said, take heed what you hear. In Luke's gospel, chapter 8, verse 18, he says, take heed how you hear. And then Peter writes, we have the prophetic word confirmed. It's sure, it's indisputable what God has spoken to us, what he has done.

And he goes on, which you do well to heed. As the light shines in the dark place, all of this the audience needed to hear. And all of this they would hear, preached in this Hebrew document.

And all of this we need to be reminded of. We must either, if we have it and don't need to be reminded, then we must look for opportunity to share it, because there certainly are a boatload of people who will benefit from these truths from scripture. Now if you're a Christian and you love the Lord God, the word of God has value. That's why we cross reference. It is the authority. It makes it clear and official. If you're not a Christian, you may scoff at these things.

Or you may want to inquire more. But either way, let all men be a liar. God is not mocked. His word is sure, rightly dividing truth from error. Soul in the spirit, the joints in the marrow, deep down it goes. He says, lest we drift away here in verse 1.

This is the drift of negligence and it is very real. And it will damn a soul any opportunity it gets. It can be the quietest, easiest, most delightful experience to the carnal nature. It is a fun way for the soul to die according to the flesh.

It will open up the flesh, the difference between the flesh and the spirit momentarily. Because we know that we have a sinful nature, even we who are saved, who are born again. Still we have a fallen nature that we are saddled with in this life.

One lifetime only and that's this one. We will jettison it when we leave this life. But this nature, it will cause us to drift along towards earthly things. Away from the truth, away from what is right and righteous. Some craving, some unanswered desire that competes for our attention.

Placing us at risk of drift. And so when we sing, prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Singing about that sinful nature of ours. And I believe that when Christians get to those verses, they know first hand what it means. The psalmist wrote it this way, Psalm 119, which is a song about the word. With my whole heart I have sought you, O let me not wander from your commandments. You look at the life of David, who more than likely wrote that song.

If he didn't write it, he sure influenced it. And here was a man that did wander, drifted into sin. Almost lost his life and his soul because of it. But God is merciful. God is present. And he is always willing to help us, but he will let us go into deep waters.

He'll navigate them with us. The force of a drift is due to the forces of wind or currents, tides. A natural drift. You know, you take a boat on the water. It's not under the control of a captain, but of its environment.

A very dangerous condition. And every born again Christian has to experience this. Our environment, our culture, the surroundings, the problems, the issues before us can cause us to drift. We can stop wanting to pray for something because we've been praying for years. God has not answered it and we give up. Jesus said men ought always pray and not lose heart. How long is always?

How often is always? From God's perspective, till we get home in heaven. No matter what the fight is, we must be determined to take it to the Lord no matter what. These two natures. The old, unregenerate nature.

That's the one I'm born with. I'm born distant from God. I am born a sinner.

I have no say so in this. It is my inheritance as a human being. The line of Adam is referred to as the flesh of the old man. The new nature is that Christ-like nature that comes from being born again.

That one has God's hand all over it. The character that is shaped by the Holy Spirit is only for those who have submitted to Christ. But because of this sinful nature, how far can my soul drift? What is the potential of drift in me as far as I let it? All the way to destruction. So I am alarmed by this.

I should be. The Bible alerts me to it. We started off saying that these are warnings here for the people of God based on who God is and what he has said to act upon what he has revealed to us through his word. And so when a person is born, they are natural. The Bible refers to them as natural. That's the flesh. They can be a moral individual but still have nothing to do with Christ.

That will damn their souls. It is the Adamic nature. It is referred to by the theologians because it comes from the fall of Adam through Adam and through Eve. The natural man is the man whose spirit is void of God, the true God. And he may do many things to try to make up for it, but if he tries to do it without God, they are false. This is the whole story behind idolatry.

Every idolater is very religious and very wrong in their religion. It will do nothing to help the spirit. It will do nothing to form Christ in us. It will do absolutely nothing to please God.

It will pretend to, perhaps, but it will not. The spirit, on the other hand, is the regenerated side. We are born again. Again, we are born fallen with a fallen nature. We are born separated from God in iniquity, as the Bible says. But when we are born again, we have a second life and a new nature is opened up to us which we otherwise would never have had.

This has to be part of our message that we share with the lost souls of the world. You have one nature until you come to Christ. You're just natural and that's not good enough for a spiritual and holy God. And then there is a third experience of our character in the Christian.

The natural, fighting the spiritual. Then there's the carnal. The carnal Christian is one that believes in the salvation of Jesus Christ, but is under the lordship of their urges, of their natural self. Not the influence of Christ, but the influence of things that Christ would rather them not do. The writer to the Hebrews is saying to these Jews that there are severe consequences for this. If you neglect the things that God has given you, there's going to be consequence. The reason why God gives them to you is to protect you. The reason why God gives laws is to protect. In fact, the rabbis referred to the law of the Jew as the fence of the law. Because it blocked them from self-destruction.

That's what it was intended to do. Galatians and Paul writes about those Christians who have succumbed to a carnal nature too much. To the point where they are deeper and deeper in sin. And then he says to that church, this is how we can rescue those who stumble this way. He says in Galatians 6, 1, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Scripture never lets us wiggle into sin comfortably. It always throws in the mercy of God before us, the grace of God and then the warnings of what sin will do and that its opportunity resides in each and every one of us. It keeps us sober.

It keeps us, it helps us from becoming self-righteous and indignant towards others who may have stumbled. Acts 2, 42, most of you know it, that the early church continued steadfastly. That is even against the wind in the apostles' teaching, in prayer, in fellowship, and in communion with the Lord. Now don't think in that sense of the communion table only. It's beyond that.

It is more than that. That oneness with the Lord. But when the Christian begins to succumb to carnality through neglect, they depart from the Scripture.

They don't want to hear it. They've lost their center, their balance in the Word of God. You can be in the Scripture and be struggling.

How much worse is it outside of the Scripture as one who names Christ as Lord? When you come to Christ, you are to be into the Scripture and into prayer the rest of your life. The other departure that happens with the drift is not only from Scripture but fellowship. Fellowship with those who are into the Word. Oftentimes Christians will look for a church that won't preach the Word so they can get away from the conviction.

So that sin could be made easier. Beware if you feel a desire to be apart from Christians. Now they're not going to make it always easy for you.

Christians are not always the easiest people to be around. Sometimes they can be the most difficult. But you have to look at the big picture as we say.

The whole picture. Take it all into consideration. There's more to it than the struggles that you meet with. It's not all about you getting blessed every time you're around Christians. Sometimes God wants to bless through you if you will let him. I think it is more blessed to receive than to give. That's what my flesh tells me. But Jesus says it's more blessed to give than receive.

And there the war, the fight is on. Departure from prayer. Don't want to be in the presence of God. Neglect his presence.

Get away from it. Again, those of you who are strong at the moment. We need to be stirred up with these things.

Reminded about them. So that we can use them as the Lord calls upon us. And so that we can guard our way. And then the communion. Communion has in it the departure not from Christ but to Christ.

And from the world and the flesh. That's the communion. It is partnership with Christ.

It's sharing his views. Whether our flesh objects or not. Communion is sharing our view as Christ is given to us. It means to draw near to God. I'm going to give you some scripture verses because this will be a good exercise after service. I hope you don't start looking right now. But I'm going to give you a list of verses that give us a picture of what communion is.

I'll give you five or maybe four. Exodus 3, 5. This was when Moses was told to draw near to the bush that burned.

It has a picture of that of the beginning of a communing experience that Moses did not have with God previously. Psalm 73 verse 28. Zephaniah 3 verse 2 and Matthew 15, 8.

To commune or rather to not commune is to stand far off. Ephesians 2, 17. I'd like to quote the verses but we'd never get out of here if I quoted a verse for every statement I made.

But there you have it. To not commune is to stand away from God. Distance oneself with God and neglect will bring it. So let's go back to our verse. Verse 1 and put it in perspective. Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away. And so verse 2.

For if the words spoken through angels prove steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward. We can stop right there. It's not complete. The thought is not complete. But it begins complete. Because he says if.

If. And that if as we know it is built upon what he's been saying. And that's enough. We understand it.

But of course there's more to it to be brought out. For if the words spoken through angels. Now these are the angelic messengers. These are those who are spiritual beings.

They have not gone through sin like we have. That matters. It matters much for our destiny. And the plan that God has for mankind.

That man that is saved. There's no indication in Exodus at the giving of the Ten Commandments and the law of God. That angels were active in this.

But the scripture makes it clear that they were without detail. It just tells us. It simply makes it clear. We see it in Acts.

We see it in other places in the book when it's outright just explicitly stated. God's word to man. Frequently delivered by messengers. Angelic messengers.

Sodom and Gomorrah. How did Lot know the place was going to go up in smoke? Likely within hours.

If not minutes. How did he know? The angels came. They told him. How did Daniel get these incredible visions of the future?

Much of which has been fulfilled to the letter and much which remains to be fulfilled. Angels. Then there was Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. There was Zacharias, the father.

There was Mary. And God uses his angels. Where the writer is going with this, if God used those angels to speak a word and the consequences of those words were severe, how much more important coming from Jesus Christ himself who is the Son of God. That's what he's trying to tell these Jews who are in danger of slipping. And so he says, If the words spoken through angels proved steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward. And so here is the point. Again, if the message of created beings who were dispatched to speak the mind of God proved to be sure and reliable and devastating, how much more when it comes from God himself.

Better not neglect it. I don't know what his audience was doing in their heads when they were hearing this document read. You notice I keep referring to it as a document. Because as we did in the introduction, it has a feel of a letter, though it's not addressed to anyone, as a letter would be, as other letters in scripture are. It has the feel of a letter nonetheless, but it also has the feel of a theological statement, a doctrine, an exposition. It is both.

It is quite powerful. And here he's telling them these very things. God warns, be it through angels or prophets, it's serious business. He started out in the beginning. God in various ways spoke at various times to the fathers, by the prophets. As in these last days spoken to us through his Son.

You better watch it. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to CrossReferenceRadio.com. That's CrossReferenceRadio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at CrossReferenceRadio.com, or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews, right here on Cross Reference Radio.