The First Warning

All right, if you have a Bible would you turn with me to Hebrews chapter two and if you don't have a Bible You can lean forward and grab the one underneath the chair in front of you if you use one of our Bibles we'll be looking on page 1276 Going to read Hebrews chapter two verses one through four as we continue our sermon series called by his son on the letter to the Hebrews Here now God's holy true and life-giving word Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard Lest we drift away from it 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 and 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 This is the word of the Lord we pray with me our father and our God we have seen such wonderful things about you and your son as we have entered into this letter to the Hebrews and We come this morning to a challenging passage, so We just Feel our desperate need for you even more We pray holy spirit that you would help us to see the truth that you have revealed to us through this passage we pray that you will help us see what we can do to Apply what is written here to our lives

Let us bow before you Lord Jesus recognize Your greatness and your majesty And what you've done for us and How we should respond Pray that you'd use this time Lord particularly to strengthen our faith and and for those who Don't know you Lord that you would right now Bring them to yourself in faith and

Use this time Lord that we might know you more and grow in faith and be better able and equipped and excited to continue to make disciples For your glory and for our joy in Jesus name Amen Probably studied in history class the sinking of the Lucitania You remember that happened on May 7th 1915. It's definitely something you usually come across in your history books And what happened was a German submarine or a German U-boat torpedoed a British ocean liner called the Lucitania And as soon as the torpedo hit rocked this Ocean liner everybody began to Scramble as you can imagine they frantically were getting life jackets and getting into the lifeboats And it is recorded that someone cried out saw the captain on the deck and cried out captain. What should we do? And apparently captain William Thomas Turner said just stay where you are She's all right As if to tell them that the ship was going to be fine that it wasn't going to sink and so this word spread Throughout all the the people on board the captain says the ship's not going to sink Captain says the ship's not going to sink So people will get excited and they get out of the lifeboats Now what's interesting is the captain really had no reason whatsoever to give such assurance They think maybe he was trying to keep people calm Or maybe it was just this dug down deep belief. There's nothing that can sink this ship But in the end The Lucitania did sink and Of the over 1900 people on board only just over 700 survived so 1100 people did not make it that day And largely because so many of them had gotten back out of the lifeboats So what it happened what it happened is they heard What they wanted to hear but they didn't hear what they needed to hear

They didn't hear a true accurate warning of The reality of the situation And so here we are we're moving through the book of Hebrews we spent the last three weeks Gloring in what we see in chapter one And we come to the first of five warnings That we find in the book of Hebrews This is one of the reasons that Hebrews is a challenging book There are these five warnings that actually kind of grow in intensity as we come across them And there are real warnings to you and to me Now this first warning is going to come about because of what we've already studied right because of what we've seen in chapter one Where the last few weeks we've been Celebrating and seeing how God that's ultimate revelation of who he is is in the person and work of his son He has shown us who he is he has shown us how we need his salvation and how he has come to save us He's revealed to us his son that his son is eternal. He's fully divine But he also became fully man so that he might die in our place paying for our sins providing permanent purification of our sins He's revealed to us that his son has been with him throughout all eternity He's the co-creator of all things He's gloriously ruling and reigning over all things That after he came and provided that purification for sins which we desperately need He he was risen from the dead got exalted him to the right hand of the majesty on high proving that what Jesus had done Really did provide the purification that we need We know that we receive the salvation through faith in him Not by what we do but only through faith In him and really he's he's laid out the gospel right? He's laid out the good news of the gospel God is gracious God has said his son to save us He's revealed who he is he's revealed how we Can be saved the only way we can be safe. He's revealed the gospel and it's after that right after this beautiful display Of who the Son of God is and what he's done. That's when we come to this first warning And the first warning is very simple do not neglect the gospel do not neglect The gospel okay because it is only through believing the gospel That we receive the salvation So we're going to talk about this in three ways what the author does is he he calls us to pay attention And then he talks about how the past is prologue Talk about what that means And then he reminds us that there's plenty of evidence all of these things Reminding us calling us warning us do not neglect The gospel what God has revealed about himself in the person and work of his son So let's take a look at verse one if you're new or a guest with us We just walk right through so please keep your bibles open And looking at verse one the first thing we got to recognize that it starts right off the bat It's hard to handle but what we see is that our natural tendency Is to drift away from God in the gospel That's what naturally happens Okay Take a look first one. He says therefore We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard In other words, what they've what they've just heard in chapter one Lest we drift away Okay And what he's getting at is because of the magnitude of what God has revealed about Jesus We absolutely have to pay attention To what we've heard we have to pay attention focus on these things and that word pay attention Is It's a word of actions and activity Right and it literally means to continually turn the mind to something Okay, that's what it means to pay attention That we need to continually turn our mind to something continually turn our mind in our heart to something to the gospel and it's just you know logical If we need to keep turning our hearts and minds back to the gospel back to what God has revealed about himself in his son then It tells us that By nature we will actually Wander we will stop thinking about it. We will stop cherishing it in our hearts Now this isn't all that familiar. I mean we sing this quite a bit When we sing I'll come now font font We sing this prone to wander Lord I feel it prone to leave the God I love Here's my heart. Oh take and seal it Seal it for thy courts above That's what we're saying. I feel it right. I feel that I drift I feel that I my heart wanders And so what do we do we pay attention? We we keep turning to him Here's my heart. Here's my heart. Here's my heart

That's what faith leads us to do to keep paying attention Realizing that if we don't actively keep our hearts and minds on the gospel we will drift

That word drift away is interesting It's it's kind of a nautical term It literally means to flow past Okay, to drift away slip away. It's it's translated in other places in the Bible the losing site now here's what what's really Challenging about this and the way it's presented is that drifting is actually something that is not something we notice It's subtle. It's undetectable In other words, we kind of like a boat that is not tied up to the dock Begins to kind of drift away People on board might not even realize that it's happening It's that kind of mentality and you know you probably experience this The way the water does this way ocean does this you know at the beach Now we go through this a lot when we go to the beach We have to tell our kids that you need to go out into the water You know because we're not going and When you go out into the water and mom and dad are sitting for a while You have to keep turning back and looking look for our shade tent Okay Or look for mom's chair. I bought Hannah the sweet sweet zebra print chair. It's lying got pink lining. She love don't ask to borrow it. She loves it man It's visible though And so you know we tell our kids when you're in the water you got to keep looking you got to pay attention to where We are because what happens if they don't They're playing they're having fun and without even realizing they're drifting drift and drifting. There's a current It's so subtle and so I say when I see them getting far away. I say hey come back

That's that's our hearts The natural tendency of our heart the damage done to us in the fall is we drift Okay, so we have to pay attention We have to pay attention We have to keep turning our hearts and minds to the good news of the grace of God in the gospel Richard Phillips summarizes this really well. It's a long quote but listen to this what is paying attention He says we must remember and organize our thoughts around the Bible's message every day of our lives We need to remember humanities fall in sin and the corruption that remains within us We need to recall what the Bible teaches about God's character his faithfulness and power his wisdom and love We need to be told about his holiness and what an offense our sin is to him Then we need to look at the cross and see God's mercy so wonderfully displayed Remembering that we have been purchased as a new and holy people never more to dwell in sin We need to daily ground our identity one in God's adoption of us as his beloved children Two in Christ's blood that has shed in Christ's blood that was shed to purchase us from sin and three in our destiny as co-heirs with Christ It has saints called to glory But also as pilgrims so journey through an alien and dying world in some We need to pay closer attention to the message of God's word. It is like a firm anchor to hold us fast in salvation like a compass to guide us safely Pay attention So how do we do that practically? This is you know one of the reasons that we really encourage and try to equip people to have a daily devotional life So that you have this regular rhythm where you're paying attention to who the Lord God is and what he's done for you in Christ That's why we try to encourage and equip families for family worship that families gather together and pay attention keep turning their hearts and minds to the truth of the mercy of God in the gospel It's why we encourage and try to equip you for regular worship Attendance it's why we try to equip you and encourage you to be involved in a life group It's why we study theology right So why we study what the Bible is teaching When Jack was talking about how we're going through the Heidelberg Catechism and yes, some of it's pretty heavy stuff, right

But that's part of what God has revealed. That's part of paying attention We need to be reminded of those things Okay, through these different things. That's how we pay attention. That's how God keeps his grip on us We avoid drifting away. You see neglecting the gospel. Here's the thing that neglecting the gospel Is really a form of rejecting it

neglecting the good news the grace of God is really a form of rejecting it if we're not actively paying attention to it for not actively turning our hearts and minds to it regularly We're in a sense. We're really ignoring him. It's almost as if we're just saying we don't care And there's a terrible problem with that to not have an interest in the things of God to not care and the problem is that Past is prologue Past is prologue take a look at verse two and three past is prologue if you're Shakespeare fan You know that is from Shakespeare play but what it means The past is prologue is it means that what's happened in the past is predictive of what's going to happen in the future If you want to know what's going to happen in the future you look to the past And that's what the author is getting at here in verse two and three he's acknowledging that basically people who ignore what God has revealed About himself about his amazing mercy End up suffering the consequences of Those who reject the grace of God I'll take a look verse two he says for since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable At every transgression or disobedience received just repribution How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation And what he's getting at is the Old Testament is absolutely filled with these different stories of people who claim to be among God's chosen people on earth the nation of Israel Yet by and large ignored him did not respond to him in obedience As if they simply just didn't believe him It's interesting that word transgression It's it's a word that means sin it means means means going beyond the balance that have been set Okay Ignoring the boundaries and just going beyond that's kind of the the mindset the word disobedience is from a term that originally signified a refusal to hear I just I'm not going to listen What the author is saying is that God had revealed to his people Things all through the Old Testament and it proved to be reliable in the way that God not only revealed his mercy And his grace and his kindness to them, but he also revealed the fact that if they reject him then he Would treat them as they deserved According to their sin Because the only way God saves people Old Testament New Testament is through faith

True faith So as people live as they live in the Old Testament like they didn't believe In fact their their way they live exposed their unbelief And God always followed through on the discipline or the judgment And one of the things that's interesting you know, it's it's a mistake to say that God was angry in the Old Testament He's nice in the New Testament The only way you can say that is if you're not really familiar with the Old Testament You see the unbelievable patience In grace and mercy of God in both testaments I give you an example one of the times which God clearly Call this people to something and they just flat-out said no Was when he led him to the Promised Land and they're on the the edge of the Promised Land basically And he's calling them to go in they sent in these spies and numbers 13 You might be familiar with this the spies come back and they're like we can't go. We don't want to go But God said well you go ahead Just Just go But they did refuse So God speaks to Moses And in numbers 14 11 and he says how long will this people despise me And how long will they not believe in me In spite of all the signs that I've done among them He's talking about how he parted the Red Sea so they could get out of Egypt He provided mana in the wilderness so they wouldn't go hungry all these different things that he had done to demonstrate His love and his mercy and his grace and his care for them time and time and time and time again Yet they just kept disobeying they just kept not listening a little later in that chapter he Moses basically pleads with God not to just destroy them and he ends up saying this in verse 21 God says but truly as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and yet have put me to the test these ten times And have not obeyed my voice shall see the land I swore to give their fathers and none of those who despise me shall see it I'm sorry did he say ten times so patient but true to his word that those who reject him will face the consequences of rejecting his grace rejecting his mercy If they ignored God if they the people in the Old Testament many of them if they ignored God and refused to listen to him And they suffered the consequences then what the authors think well how in the world can we expect to have had the son of God revealed to us the good news of the gospel how can we expect to not suffer the same things if we ignore it if we neglect this great salvation In other words saving faith takes the gospel seriously takes the gospel seriously Believes it's true then it impacts our entire life and here's the interesting thing he's talking now The author he was he's writing to a church. He's writing to people who profess to believe notice when he's says we must pay attention he says we must pay attention even including himself in that right

The past is prologue God has always been unbelievably gracious But those who reject it Rejected and then they face those consequences

Now a couple things Let me tell you what I'm not saying and what the scriptures are not saying I'm not saying that we cannot have assurance of salvation the Bible makes very clear that we can know that we have eternal life You see that in first John 5 first John 5 explicitly I'm also not denying the doctrine of perseverance of the saints all that God has ordained to eternal life will Persevere through this life in faith To the end Paul says so Philippians 1 6 I'm sure that God who began a good working you will bring it to completion So we're not denying the perseverance of the saints I'm not saying that we're saved by works No way cut my tongue out if I ever do Bible is abundantly clear on that Paul says no one will be justified declared righteous in God's sight by works of the law No one What I'm trying to do is just abuse us of some of the popular conceptions and formulations of things that are deeply unbiblical And which have the net effective giving false assurance to people who really have no business feeling safe and secure

Because the bottom line is will you hear me on this hear me on this please anyone who claims to be a Christian but Totally disregards God's law Refuses to listen to him you need to understand that that is a rejection of the grace of God you are rejecting him

You need to be warned This is what you need to hear Don't reject him So maybe you're maybe you know a lot of us I know that so many of us I know many many of us here really do have assurance of salvation We know we know the Lord but maybe you are realizing that you have not really taken the gospel all that seriously Maybe you realizing that you need to get much more serious about the Lord Maybe you're what you're feeling is that that call from God to you today to repent to turn away from a life of not really taking this Christianity thing seriously and being real about it and believing that we're talking about heaven and hell and eternity And repent turn away from these things where we're downgrading or downplaying the importance of the gospel and believe him He's so gracious Receive that grace Clean to that grace pay attention to that grace start taking things seriously Nothing in your life is as important as this is nothing

He's calling you. He's your father saying you're getting too far away. Come back. Get here with me or you're safe Stop drifting And I would say if that's where your heart is at all praise the Lord if that's where your heart is at So do something do something today Maybe it's coming and talking to me or one of the other pastors or elders and saying I need to I need to get serious about Jesus Teach me how to do that. We have people who will disciple you who will teach you how to do that Maybe it's a step of saying look I'm going to start being at worship every week I'm going to see that turning my heart and mind to the gospel and worship of the risen Exalted Christ is what I need on Sunday mornings Maybe it's real. You can't do this alone. You need community. You need people that can help you remind you to pay attention Pay attention. Maybe that's getting into a life group Whatever it is. If God is moving on your heart do something do something. He's he's saying to you. He's he's calling to you

The other thing he says that's tough is that there's plenty of evidence. Okay past his prologue We know that if we reject God's grace then we don't get it um But also there's plenty of evidence of it look at verse three B and four He says it was declared at first By the Lord and it was attested to us By those who heard Well, God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles And by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will Here's what he's talking about God has given sufficient evidence for us to believe in other words It's not a lack of evidence That's at the real issue here The author's talking about how all through redemptive history we see the way that God has a pattern Okay, there's a pattern when God reveals things remember how we talked about in the Old Testament. It's all progressive It's all moving toward the ultimate revelation of who God is in the person and work of his son And what the author's getting at is that God has this pattern of revealing things we need to know and then he Empowers people to do these miraculous things To strengthen that to help us believe Right these miracles. This is why Jesus did all these different miracles turning water into wine or raising Lazarus from the dead the apostles then Also were given the ability to do amazing things Healing people Paul also raised somebody from the dead who by the way got bored in a sermon and fell out the window and died

Acts 20 I can't do what Paul could do so

But there's a pattern right there's a pattern a pattern He reveals and then boom boom boom these amazing things happen so that we can see it But here's the thing you we sometimes we want to say look if God would just do some of that right now in front of me Be all set be all in Not really lots of people saw miracles and did not believe these people When he says that these things were attested to us who heard he's talking about how they heard everything from the apostles who heard it from the Lord It was first declared by the Lord Then it was attested to us by those who heard he's saying the apostles who heard it directly from the Lord came to them and when they came to them They attested the message by miracles these different things and yet still The author has to issue this warning do not neglect the gospel So it's really not a matter of more evidence it all comes down to whether or not we are going to

Get serious if we're not and be willing to call others to do the same Well, let's say you're Shaken God's where does that? And you are realizing you do need to do something you want to do something you want to pay attention You want to get back where you are safe with the Lord I want to tell you you got to remember your natural instinct is going to be to not it's going to be to back away God is saying break through that Break through that and get serious Do what it takes interesting story Read a story about a mountain near mountain climber named Joe Simpson And it comes from a memoir That he wrote called touching the void and You just read this little passage from somebody who's writing about Joe Simpson this mountain climber The author says thousands of feet up the side of Grande mountain Joe's safety line got cut Leaving Joe to slide with a broken leg into a deep crevasse Okay, so he's climbing a mountain his safety line breaks and he he breaks his leg and he slides deep into a crevasse You know to crevasse this is a massive cavern

After several desperate attempts to climb up and out of the crevasse he was faced with the fact that his injury made it impossible He just knew it. There's no way. He's ever going to climb up and out And so Against all survival instinct He made the excruciating choice to lower himself deeper into the crevasse In the hope that there would be other exits farther down I mean can you imagine and all the while he's thinking am I lowering myself to freedom or to just deeper into the belly of the earth Does a ray of sunlight await me in the pit showing away out into the day or is there only darkness and then slow death With every inch that he lowered himself further and further into the darkness of this crevasse He edged farther and farther from the obvious way out which would be to Climb which he knew he couldn't do now. Here's the crazy thing He made the right choice You know why reading the memoir about it

He does this unthinkable thing right Go down into the unknown into the scariest of the scariest In hopes That there's a way out And there was if you are not serious if you've taken Jesus casually up to this point I know that to get serious looks like a deep dark crevasse what is down there

But I also know from experience if you go You find out that at the bottom there is light you find out that he is the way the truth in the life you find out He is the way waiting for you this whole time And the way that you do it is you think of the cross right how do you go into the deep darkness you think of the cross And the darkness that Jesus lowered himself down into not because he was hoping there was a way out but because he knew there wasn't And that by doing that by him descending into the darkest of dark and receiving the wrath of God Onto him So that it could be paid for in full

He sets us free from that sin purification forever and we think about that you think about that That's he's the one calling you come on come on down I'm down here And he's there and you find him and he changes you forever

So pay attention and live Let's pray Father So many of us know you I mean we know you know you know you and we cannot thank you enough

And I know that there's probably people in this room Who are wrestling with whether or not they really know you and they're wrestling with whether or not they really believe in you And they're wrestling because you they hear you are they are they hearing you Let them hear you Calling them forward Don't let them reject your grace

Let them embrace it and let them do something To begin more of and more of a life of paying attention and Revealing in the glory that is the finished work of Christ and the promises of the gospel And let myself and everyone at this church who knows you Be resources allies friends To help them along the way and we pray this for your glory And for our joy in the name of Jesus Christ the risen Lord Amen