Drifting

I have your Bibles with you today. Turn with me if you would to Hebrews chapter 2 and we'll be looking at verses 1 through 4. It was declared at first by the Lord. It was attested to us by those who heard.

While God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we have many who we need to lift up to you today. I pray for Faye Carter who's here with us today and yet she is struggling right now with her health. I pray, Lord, that you'd strengthen her. I pray for Esther and Gwen Carroll as they've experienced Don's homecoming.

Please give them peace. Pray for Nicole Lowes who is recovering from open heart surgery. I pray for Jim Belk who's in the hospital with infection in his leg. Pray for Jeremy Karriker and Renda Torrance who's here with us today. Pray for their healing. Pray for Molly Doernberger.

Help her with their infection. Pray for Lisa Menzel who's getting an MRI done very soon because of the horrible migraines that she keeps having. Heavenly Father, over the last several weeks we've been looking at Jesus's supremacy over all things. We have seen that Jesus is the heir of all things. We have seen that He is the creator. We have seen that He is the one and only Savior. We have seen that He is greater than the prophets, greater than the priesthood, greater than the law, greater than the angels. We have been wowed by the greatness, the majesty, the glory, and the deity of Jesus. But today we're going to be warned and challenged to not drift. May we fully grasp what is being said in this chapter. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? For it is in the precious holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. I read an article in the paper several years ago about a fisherman that was taking his boat way out into the ocean off the Atlantic coast. And he got to the place where he wanted. He took the anchor and he threw it out. After fishing just a little bit, he got tired.

He laid down in the boat to go to sleep. Somehow the rope that was tied to the anchor and went to the boat got unraveled. And when that unraveled, the boat began to drift.

And it drifted, and it drifted, and it drifted until it was miles and miles away. And the man finally woke up. He saw that he was not where he was before, that the anchor was not there and tied up. And he knew that this was a problem. He didn't have any means of communication.

He didn't have much food. And so he prayed, and he prayed. Two days later, they sent a rescue helicopter out to look for him. They found him. They took a rope ladder and they dropped it down to him. He climbed up the rope ladder. He got into the helicopter and they took him back to shore.

There were news reporters that were there. And they began to question him and ask him about all that was going on. And he said in a trembling voice, I had no idea that I had drifted so far. He said, it was unexpected. I fell asleep.

I was unprepared, and I just about died. When I heard that, I couldn't help but to think of some Christians that I know. Some Christians that I know who started off with a bang. They were filled with excitement and filled with joy. They were studying the Word of God, meditating and memorizing scripture.

They were going to church every time the doors were open. And then after years passed, something happened. And no longer were they witnessing.

And they were going to church, but it was kind of out of obligation. No longer were they spending great time in God's Word. They had read through the Word before, and now they were just not into it like they were before. They have drifted. It was not radical, it was not quick, and it was not purposeful.

It was a slow, energy-sapping drift. And that one time on fire, witness for Christ had lost his heart, lost his desire, and lost interest. Folks, this is what the writer of Hebrews is seeing in the lives of many Jews who at one time had taken a stand for Christ.

Now, for the last four weeks, we've been studying chapter 1. And the whole chapter was written to faltering Christians. And what message did we hear in chapter 1?

I think we heard this message. Jesus Christ is superior to everything. He is not just our Savior. He is God. He is the second person of the Trinity. He is eternal.

He's been here forever, and He will be here forever. He is greater than the prophets. He's greater than the priesthood. He is greater than angels. He's greater than the law. He is God, and there's none like Him.

He is God, and there is no other. With that said, after chapter 1, we get into chapter 2. And in chapter 2, it begins with that transition word, therefore. In other words, after you've heard this in chapter 1 about the superiority of Jesus, He said, now, wait up. Look at verse 1 again with me. Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

If there's ever been a more relevant scripture for our day and time, I'm not sure where it is. We are living in a time where truth just doesn't count for much anymore. I shared with you a couple of weeks ago that there was a poll in America Taken where it said that 70% of Americans today do not believe in absolutes. In other words, there is no right or wrong. There is no good or bad.

There is no truth or error. Everything is relative. What matters is your emotions and your feelings. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said this, my karma ran over my dogma. In other words, don't get hung up on truth and doctrinal matters.

What really matters is do you feel good. Wow, that might be relevant and it might be attractive, but that was not the hearts of the writers of scripture who were inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. I've got three points I want to share with you today. Number one is the warning.

Look at verse one again. Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. The warning is the warning against drifting. Kent Hughes said that drifting is the besetting sin. It is not intentional, but it's apathetic.

There is no friction. There's no dramatic sense of departure, but the winds of trouble or the lure of the culture or materialism just gently flowed us down the stream. So that things that used to prick our hearts don't prick us so hard anymore.

Things that we used to fight with a vengeance, now we can compromise with and live with. I think Jesus had this in mind when he spoke to the church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter two. And he said to the church at Ephesus, you are doctrinally strong. You are carrying out your Christian responsibilities well, but I have this against you. You have left your first love. You've left the joy. You've left the excitement. You've left that glorious, sweet fellowship with Jesus.

You have walked away from it. I know that everybody's conversion experience is different. Some of you were raised in a covenant home. And when we talk to you, we talk to you and there's no doubt about it that you love Jesus. You can't remember a time in your life when you didn't love Jesus.

You're walking with him. You're studying the scripture. You were raised in a covenant family. You came to Christ.

And it's very, very evident. There are others of us who had a very radical conversion experience where it went from day to night. Mine was like that. And I can remember when, right in those first few months, that Jesus was so real. He was so sweet. Things were so good. I was so joyful that fighting sin seemed to be a breeze. Man, then I began to get into the Christian life. I began to study the Word of God. I began to memorize scripture. I began to try to witness to people. And I started going to church and really trying to get myself involved. And everything all of a sudden kind of got normal. It got normal. I didn't realize it at that time. But what was happening was this. I was leaving my first love. I was leaving my first love so old temptations began to strike me again. I made excuses.

I said to myself, well, I see other Christians that are failing. And so I guess maybe it's okay for me to compromise a little. And the more I compromised, the less joyful I became. Folks, we need to understand something here. This is not a game. This is war.

It is war. You drift as a Christian when church becomes an obligation and not a joy. When giving into a temptation doesn't sting like it did at one time.

When giving to the Lord's work is a task and not a privilege. I want you to listen carefully to what Kent Hughes said here. What brings such drifting? For one thing, there's the tide of years. You have to live for some length to observe this. But the longer you live, the more you'll see it. Many who are at one time professing fine Christians, imperceptibly drifted away from their earlier, better selves.

They have kept up appearances. But the years have carried them far away from their devotion. I vividly remember the impressive public resolve of some of my college friends to follow Christ, whatever would come. But today, though they have not disowned Christ, they have drifted far from their earlier faith.

Children have no understanding or interest in Christianity. A slow drift given enough time will carry you to another continent in its dark, uncharted waters. There's also the tide of familiarity with the truth. It is natural for us to come to regard the familiar as commonplace.

Granted, some find joy in their familiarity with the mysteries of Christ. But familiarity has both danger and reward. It depends on us. There's the danger of busyness too. We who live in the modern era are busy people. And the multiplicity of our cares and duties can overwhelm us.

A snowflake is a tiny thing. But when the air is full of them, they can bury us. Just so the thousand cares of each day can insulate us from the stupendous excellencies of Christ, causing us to begin a deadly drift. The drifting that comes through the combination of years, familiarity, and busyness, often bears its existence when the storm of opposition comes. The anchor has long been loosed.

And when the winds come, an eternal soul is suddenly on the rocks and shipwrecked. No wonder then that the warning is a powerfully phrased command that should be read with an exclamation point. Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

My point two is a command. Look with me again at verse one. Therefore, we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. Pay attention. Wake up.

You drift when you get lazy. The writer of Hebrews is trying to get us to go back to the truths that he has shared with us in chapter one, and to devour those truths. And what was Hebrews chapter one about? It was about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It was a dissertation on the supremacy of Christ.

It was a wake up call to remind us that Jesus was not just a great moral man and a great teacher, but that He was in fact God, who has been here forever and who will be here forever. He is greater than the angels. He is greater than the prophets. He's greater than the priesthood. He is greater than the law. Why is He greater than the law? Because He is the one who wrote the law. And the Greek word for pay attention is an interesting word.

It's prosheko. And that particular word is a nautical word, and it means to keep on the course or to secure, be secured by an anchor. Drifting away always happens with almost no effort. In other words, it's not hard to drift away.

But to stay the course is the exact opposite. It takes effort. It takes effort. To stay physically healthy, you've got to eat, don't you?

To stay physically healthy, you need to eat vegetables, you need to eat fruit, you need to eat meat and proteins, and you need to do it daily. Folks, the same thing is true spiritually. And you don't need the Word of God just on Sunday morning.

You need the Word of God daily. 2 Timothy 2.15, Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharp of the knee, two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, to the joints of the marrow, and to the discernment of the thoughts, and the intents of the heart. Psalm 119, verse 160, Thy word is truth in its entirety. Psalm 119 and verse 89, Forever, O Lord, is thy word settled in heaven. Psalm 119, 105, Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Psalm 119 and verse 99, I have more understanding that all of my teachers for your meditations or your testimonies are my meditations. Psalm 119, verse 67, Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I have kept your word. So how do I keep from drifting? Many people will tell you this, you just let go and let God.

It's just easy, no problem. Well, if that's right, then the Apostle Paul sure was wrong. For Paul said, I press on, I follow after, I strive, I fight. This is the fourth chapter of 2 Timothy.

Paul wrote his own obituary. You remember what he said? He said, For I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departures at hand. For I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also who love his appearing.

How did Paul keep from drifting? He tells us right here. He fought, he finished, and he kept. If you've been here for many years, you have heard from this pulpit over and over again how we are saved, how we are justified. We are saved by grace through faith, plus nothing.

Folks, it is not our works that bring about our justification. We are saved by the work of Jesus. Jesus did the work. He did the work on the cross of Calvary. He did the work through his resurrection. That's how it happened. But what is the Christian to do once he is saved? What happens then? Why don't you listen to what Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones said. He said, In the matter of our righteousness and justification, we can never say too often that we do nothing.

We can do nothing. It is entirely the work of Christ. But once we are saved and given this new life, then the progressive work of sanctification does not call for passivity.

We are exhorted to activity. One more quick quote from J.C. Ryle. I got this from the book called Holiness, and I've got hundreds of Christian books in my library. This book on holiness by J.C. Ryle is in my top five because that book wore me out.

It showed me just how not holy Doug Agnew really is. Then it gave me practical ways that I could become more holy before him. Ryle said this, I will never shrink from declaring my belief that there are no spiritual gains without pains. I should as soon expect a farmer to prosper in business who contented himself with sowing his fields and never looking at them till harvest as expect a believer to attain much holiness who is not diligent about his Bible reading, his prayer, and the use of his Sundays.

Wow. So verse 1 of Hebrews 2 is the key to stop us from drifting. The key is to diligently study and understand and apply the Word of God.

Many people try to come closer to God through just an intense emotional experience or maybe through disciplines or through ritual or through special formulas. It's not what Jesus said. Jesus said this, if you abide in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Paul wrote the book of Romans.

The first 11 chapters of the book of Romans are all doctrinal, just one great glorious biblical truth after another after another. He gets to chapter 12, and he moves on to practical Christian living. And all the way through 12 through 16, we see that practical Christian living. But he gets in verse 1, and he uses that transition word again, therefore, he's saying in light of what I just shared with you about the importance of doctrine and the importance of Christian principles, and the light of that, therefore, presents your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Donald Gray Barnhouse said, it is the Word of God that will establish the Christian and give him strength to establish the old forces and to live the law. And listen to this, it can never be done any other way. You cannot find one Christian on earth who has developed true strength and character without study and meditation on God's Word. If we seriously don't want to drift, folks, we've got to become people of the book.

And when does it happen? It starts at your conversion, and it needs to go right through until you die. All right, point three, two reasons that we should pay attention.

There's a negative and positive reason. Verses two through four. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord. It was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

So first of all, the negative. In verse two, he points us back to the Old Testament to remind us of the serious nature of God's call on his people. He said that every transgression or disobedience received a just and fair retribution. The Old Testament is full of examples where God's law is known, then it's violated, and then there's punishment.

Let me just share a few with you. You might remember back in the Old Testament there was a man named Korah, another named Dathan, another named Abiram. And they were jealous of Moses and Aaron. They were jealous of Moses' leadership.

They were jealous of Aaron's being the high priest. And so they decided to rebel. They got a group of Israelites with them to rebel with them. They rebelled against Moses' leadership.

They rebelled against Aaron being the high priest. And all of a sudden the Lord opened the earth up under their feet. They went alive down into Sheol. The earth closed back up. I don't know if I was you, if I were watching that.

I think that might wake me up. I think that might let me understand how serious God is about His Word. I think about Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu. The Scripture says that they offered strange fire on the altar of God, and the Lord took their lives just like that. What were they doing? They were mocking God's sacrifice.

What were they doing? They were making light, not showing respect for the sacrifice of God. What is that sacrifice of God a picture of? It is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they were mocking it.

They died instantly. I think of Uzzah. You remember when David was getting ready to transport the Ark of the Covenant from the house of Abinadab all the way up to Mount Zion where the tabernacle of David was. Now, there were very strict regulations about how the Ark of the Covenant was to be transported. There were rings on the four corners of the Ark of the Covenant. They would take two huge poles and run them through those rings, and then the priests were to pick them up, put them on the shoulders. The Ark of the Covenant was to be carried on the sanctified shoulders of the priesthood. David didn't do that. David told them to put the Ark of the Covenant on an ox-drawn cart and let the ox-drawn cart take it up there.

Where did he get that from? It's the way the Philistines did it. Well, the ox started moving, and then the ox stumbled. When the ox stumbled, the Ark began to totter back and forth. A man named Uzzah reached up, tried to stop it so it wouldn't hit the ground. And as soon as he touched it, his life was taken.

Folks, I could go on and on. The judgment of sin was quick, and it was certain. Now the writer of Hebrews is saying, the Old Covenant has less revelation than we do in the New Covenant. And the people of God in the Old Covenant knew the seriousness of taking God's command lightly.

So in the light of that, listen carefully. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? I think of America right now where we see the gospel all over the place. We have Bibles everywhere. We have churches on every corner.

You get in your car, you turn the radio on to a Christian station, you hear the gospel. We have a lot of the gospel, and I praise God for that. And I know that persecution is tanking up here in America, persecution of Christians. But still, it's not a crime to go to church right now. It's not a crime to share your faith, your faith in Christ with somebody else.

It's not a crime to pray in public, at least right now. But folks, in other words, our opportunities, our knowledge, our spiritual light is so much greater than even Israel in the Old Testament. And those in communist countries and Muslim countries right now, with all the revelation that God's given us, the question is this. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us that in the New Covenant, we would have more revelation and be more accountable than those in the Old Covenant. He used anger for an example. He said, you've heard it said, by them of old, thou shalt not murder, but I say unto you, if you even have hatred in your heart against a brother, then you're in danger of hellfire. What about lust?

Having trouble with lust? Jesus said this. You've heard it said, by them of old, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you, if you even look upon a woman as to lust after her, you have committed adultery already with her in your heart. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

Second reason that we need to pay attention is a positive reason. It was the Lord himself who gave us this revelation, the gospel of Christ. Verse three through four again.

How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord. It was attested to us by those who heard. While God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

The gospel, the true gospel, the only gospel came to us through Jesus Christ himself. Folks, this is not the musing of some highbrow philosopher. This is not some diatribe from some earthly despot.

This is not the ranting of some sentimental guru. We got this message from Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God himself. And what does the Lord teach us about the gospel message?

He teaches us this. We are helpless, hopeless sinners. We don't hate sin. We love sin.

We can't work it off. We can't be good enough. We can't be religious enough. It's the exact opposite of every other religion. In every other religion, it's what you do, what you give, what you sacrifice to please your God that will save you or your false God. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. So the writer of Hebrews says, how do we know that's true?

And he answers it this way. Jesus backed up the message with signs and wonders and gifts. Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead. And what about his followers? You remember when Jesus was being taken to the cross, the followers of Jesus got scared. They scattered like sheep.

They were scared to death. But then after the day of Pentecost, they are filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and they go out and preach the gospel, and all hell can't stop them. I love reading fifth chapter of Acts.

Fifth chapter of Acts, they preach the gospel. The authorities take them, and they beat them. So what do they do? They give up and quit.

Oh, no. The Scripture says they rejoice because they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake. They rejoiced, and then they continued to preach. Folks, here's the message. Don't drift. Fight sin. Love people.

Love Jesus. And listen carefully. Don't give up.

Don't ever, ever, ever give up. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I have said some things this morning about the spiritual naivete of American culture. I've shared the danger of a culture that has no use for God or His Word.

All that is true. But the writer of Hebrews has professing Christians in mind here, and he is warning us of the powerful possibility and the stark reality of drifting. May we all sense that reality. May we fight it with all of our hearts. Lord, our prayer today is this. Wake us up and help us not to drift. Heavenly Father, at this point in time, we have the privilege of celebrating with the Lord's Supper. We pray that your presence might be here in a very sweet and wonderful way, and, Lord, that you might be glorified through our partaking of this sacrament this morning. And it's in Jesus' holy, wonderful, and precious name that we pray. Amen.