Jesus - God is Worshipped, Part 4

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Many of us are being pulled in so many directions with life's challenges and responsibilities. It can be easy to put some areas of our lives on autopilot. But are we still paying attention where it counts? Our text from Hebrews 2, 1-4 challenges us with this. We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. We don't drift in a positive direction, and spiritual drift leads to destruction. Therefore, we must devote ourselves to God's truth, allowing it to inform our decisions and attitudes. C.S.

Lewis pointed out that Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the one thing it cannot be is moderately important. Let's listen in now. When I was finishing undergraduate school, I worked at WHPE in High Point. And I started as a part-time shift. I started in the evenings. And back in those days, WHPE would sign off at midnight. They would go off the air. And so I was there from 6 o'clock to midnight, and at 1155 each night, I would start a routine that was a shutdown routine, put the last thing on the air was the national anthem, and then we would shut things down.

I would turn off the transmitter, and we were off the air. Well, that was pretty routine for me. And yet, in undergraduate studies in college, there's a lot of stress that can go along with that. You get tired. Sometimes I went to work tired. And when you're tired, 1155 at night is not a time that you're normally wanting to be awake.

You know what I'm saying? So I always listen to the Haven of Rest broadcast, because I just love the men's harmonies and things like that, just the really excellent music in that. And then we would go into the last part of the program, and I made the mistake of sitting down on the couch. Now, there was at WHPE, there was an alarm system. And the reason why is because if you're on the radio, the last thing you want is dead air.

You want something being transmitted over the airwaves. And if there was ever a period of 30 seconds of dead air, this alarm went off. It was an audio alarm, an audible alarm, but it was also a light that would flash like this. Well, like I said, I made the mistake of sitting on the couch. 1155 came along, and I was... All of a sudden, the lights go off. And I was rudely awakened, only to realize that I had neglected my duties, and there was indeed dead air on 95.5 WHPE.

People were waiting for the shutdown, and there was nothing on the air. I had neglected my duties. I had fallen asleep. There's lots of kinds of alarm systems. You have some on your car. One of them is called the check engine light. Some of you might be driving now with that check engine light on.

Studies have shown that 50% of those who are driving cars with signs of impending breakdown have indicated that the light has been on for three months or more. But there's always an excuse for ignoring the light, right? There's always an excuse for ignoring the warning. The car's running just fine.

I don't see anything wrong with it. Or another excuse that was offered was, you know, I just don't have the funds to take care of it, so we're just going to kind of rough it out here and see how long it'll go. The third excuse was they just didn't have the time to worry about it.

They just didn't have the time. They've got other priorities. I'm not going to worry about that. I've got other stuff I need to worry about.

They just don't think about it. But the warning light is on, and it's there for a reason, and it has meaning to it. As we look at the book of Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews by the author, it begins with a therefore, and verses one to four of chapter two is a warning. There are five warnings specifically in the letter to the Hebrews, and this is the first one.

This is the first one. If you neglect God's truth, if you neglect this awesome message that God has given you, then you will drift, and drift will lead you to destruction. Now remember, what does He say in chapter one?

Chapter one is all about who is speaking. It is God who has come to us in person to speak to us, and so He begins chapter two warning here. If you neglect this information that God has given, you will drift, and that drift will lead you to destruction. That's the warning, and so let's turn that around to a positive. What He is exhorting us to do, it's exactly what He tells us to do in verse one, is to devote your mind to God's truth for your good.

Let's look at this a little bit by a little bit here. To devote your mind, it's translated there to more earnest heed, pay much closer attention. More earnest heed, that's the New King James. Much closer attention is like the ESV, the New American Standard, the NIV. Much closer attention means to devote more earnest. It's all the more or far more. It can be translated exceedingly.

If you were to look in Acts chapter 26 verse 11, the Apostle Paul is giving his testimony, and he was at the point where he was telling about how he, before he was saved, before he was in Christ, he was pursuing Christians, and he used this particular Greek word. He says, I was furiously enraged at them. That's the New American Standard translation. Furiously enraged, that word furiously is the word that's right here, the more earnest. The more earnest.

So in other words, be in hot pursuit. The more earnest heed, and then again come to the word heed or attention as it's translated. This word means simply to give the mind to, to give your mind to, you know what it is to be really focused on something? To give your mind to, devote your attention to something. Again, when I was in undergraduate studies, I studied Greek, you know, because the New Testament was written in Greek, so we had to study Greek, the Koine Greek language, and to be able to understand it and take it apart and understand its original language.

It was a tough, it's a tough subject, and the professor had very high expectations. And I remember in my dorm room, I had to have absolute silence, and I did not allow any distractions. I locked my door, I turned off the stereo, everything. I wanted to completely focus without any distractions.

I needed to devote my attention to that. Some of you do the same thing like with a computer. When you're on the computer, nothing else, nothing else registers, right? You're just on the computer, nothing else registers.

Sometimes my wife does that when she's deleting emails. And the kids come, Mom, can I do this? Yeah, sure. And she's, you know, Mom, can I have ice cream? Yeah, sure. Mom, can I have the car? Yeah, sure. Mom, can I have a kitten?

Yeah, sure. You know, it's just, she's devoted her mind to the computer. She's given all of her, she's devoted her attention to that right in front of her.

She's not allowing herself to be distracted by anything else. What are we devoting our mind to? Devote your mind to God's truth. Look again at the first word of chapter 2, therefore. Therefore.

That refers us back to chapter 1. God has spoken in person. The creator of the universe has said something. Therefore, we must give the more earnest deed. We must pay much closer attention.

The Lord has spoken. So we need to remember who is talking and what He has said. And what He has said has been objectively revealed to us. In other words, we don't arrive at truth from within ourselves. Truth comes to us. It is revealed to us. And we, therefore, must give the more earnest deed. We must devote our minds to God's truth.

Two things about God's truth. First of all, I'm going to use the word awesome, the message. Now, I know this is a word that has been grossly overused, particularly in the younger generation.

Hey, do you like chocolate? Yeah, it's awesome. No, God is awesome. Listen, I am using this word appropriate this morning, okay, because this is the sense. He uses the phrase so great a salvation, so great a salvation. If you were to look at this word in James chapter 3, he's talking about the tongue, okay. And he's using the illustration of a ship, a huge, massive, mighty ship. And he uses the same word there, so great, the same word in the Greek.

And that big, huge ship has just a rudder that turns it. But as he's describing the ship, he uses the same word that's used here, so great, a salvation. No, it's an awesome message. It is an awesome message. It is a message of rescue.

If the writer of Hebrews were living today here, he would insert the words to the hymn, amazing love, how can it be that you, my God, should die for me? That's awesome. Awesome means something stops you in your tracks and grips your attention. That's the message that God has communicated here, that your maker would lay down his life for you to rescue you. So it is an awesome message. Not only is it awesome, but it is clear. It is a clear message. We see this, look at verse 3 and 4 with me.

How shall we escape if we neglect so great is salvation, which at 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. It is a clear message. God hasn't been ambiguous about what he has said. It is a very clear message, four points under this.

First of all, it is what we have heard. God has spoken to us with language that we can understand and hear. God has spoken to us. Secondly, all of the Godhead is involved in this communication. It is the Trinity. The Lord, it began to be spoken by the Lord, God also bearing witness, that is the Father, and then he mentions the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the miraculous signs and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

What is that? That is the whole Trinity. That is all of God involved in this communication. He has been abundantly clear about it. Thirdly, he has also spoke through human agency. God has spoken to us as witnesses through people just like us using our language.

He has not been ambiguous about this at all. Fourthly, the message, this awesome message, has been clearly verified in public by miraculous signs. All the miracles that Jesus did, they were a verification of the truth that he spoke and his truth claims of himself as deity, as the rescuer, as the savior of mankind. We are so glad you have joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.