The Danger of Neglect
- Sunday, February 21st, 2010Download MP3
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| Sunday, February 21, 2010 | ||
| 10:00 pm |
Book of Hebrews written to
Flesh and blood Christians struggling to overcome past traditions and adjust to the fresh movements of God in a fast changing world. They struggled to hold onto their faith in Christ in a world of growing chaos and powerful pressures from their culture. For the most part, they were second generation Christians. They had professed faith in Christ for some time. But they’ve reached a stage of discouragement and spiritual lethargy. Some had given up meeting in corporate worship. Experiencing opposition to their faith both from friends and family and from the culture around them.
Hebrews 2:1-4 “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. ”
Hebrews 2:1-4
“1Διὰ τοῦτο δεῖ περισσοτέρως προσέχειν ἡμᾶς τοῖς
Therefore, it is necessary more abundantly to give heed us to the ἀκουσθεῖσιν, μήποτε παραρυῶμεν. 2εἰ γὰρ ὁ δι᾽ ἀγγέλων λαληθεὶς
things heard lest we drift away for if the through angels spoken
to flow past / glide by
λόγος ἐγένετο βέβαιος καὶ πᾶσα παράβασις καὶ παρακοὴ ἔλαβεν
word was firm and every transgression and disobedience received
ἔνδικον μισθαποδοσίαν, 3πῶς ἡμεῖς ἐκφευξόμεθα τηλικαύτης
a just recompence how we shall escape so great
ἀμελήσαντες σωτηρίας, ἥτις ἀρχὴν λαβοῦσα λαλεῖσθαι διὰ τοῦ neglecting a salvation which a beginning having received the spoken word through the
κυρίου ὑπὸ τῶν ἀκουσάντων εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐβεβαιώθη,
Lord, by the hearing was to us confirmed 4συνεπιμαρτυροῦντος τοῦ θεοῦ σημείοις τε καὶ τέρασιν καὶ ποικίλαις
bearing witness with God by signs both and by wonders and by various
δυνάμεσιν καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου μερισμοῖς κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ θέλησιν;”
powerful deeds and Spirit Holy distributions according to His will.
The author steps into this background and exalts Christ.
Brings them and us face to face with the central issue:
I. The Warning!
Let’s start at the end of the argument in this section.
D. Lest we drift away! This is the danger of drifting!
The danger of slipping by
Lit: flow past them
The danger of gliding past your opportunity
Only to find yourself farther down stream than u wanted
First of 5 warnings:
Herein is the warning: pay closer attention or you will drift away!
The original readers were slow and sluggish to respond to Scripture.
They had not grown spiritually as they should have. (5:11-12)
As if on a boat on a river or the ocean
And if we don’t pay attention the currents of this age will carry us away from Christ and his word!
Article
There was an article on the front page of the San Diego Union-Tribune (4/28/09) that was entitled, “Loss of Faith Attributed to Spiritual Drift.” Reporting on a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, the article began, “More Americans have given up their faith or changed religious because of a gradual spiritual drift than switched because of a disillusionment over their churches’ policies…”
It went on to say “Almost three-quarters of Catholics and Protestants who are now unaffiliated with a religion said they had ‘just gradually drifted away’ from their faith.”
“Drift”
A process that is little noticed and seemingly insignificant.
With hardly any awarenesss that it is happening.
The danger here is that their apathy and indifference resulted in spiritual drift that has gone unnoticed
Boats drift with the current.
Students drift away from their education
People drift away from each other.
A gradual slipping away through inattention!
Drifting happens in all kinds of ways.
How to Drift Like an Expert – Popular drifting techniques
It is usually imperceptible. People drift away from each other, they drift away from church, they drift away from reading the Bible. After participating regularly for years, something will suddenly come up and a Sunday happens when they skip church. A week or two later, the same thing happens. A week or two after that, the same thing, again. Before you know it, they’ve quit coming.
C.S. Lewis said…
“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.” C.S. Lewis
“The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end” Disraeli
14 year old girl from the Philippines
Drifting Away
Is there nothing more to do?
Is there nothing more to say?
I am just, after all, another mere soul,
lost in this world, lost far away.
You could have brought me back.
You were my only confidant.
For you I shared what I thought,
for you I shared all that was in me.
Never once did I open up like I did to you,
my thoughts and emotions,
never once did any other know of,
You were my friend, my only best friend.
But now I could only smile,
I guess it’s all just from self-pity.
After all, who wouldn’t feel stupid,
angry and guilty, after opening up
To a person who could merely drift away,
to a person you thought you knew,
to a person you thought would always be.
to a person you thought would stay.
I was ready to give more to you,
to be the best friend I could ever be.
But see, you left, or maybe I did.
Things weren’t just right anymore.
I guess that’s life. Nothing stays, nothing remains,
And all I know now is that this is life, And I hate it for being so.
Ralph Marston: “Every day you spend drifting away from your goals is a waste not only of that day, but also of the additional day it takes to regain lost ground.”
Drifting away
Yesterday was a good friend’s birthday. I didn’t call or send him a card. I don’t have his phone number anymore and I don’t have his address, either. I probably could find both, but I didn’t bother to try. It’s just as well. We seldom see each other anymore. I WISHED him a Happy Birthday anyway, whether he knew it or not.
I haven’t seen Recondo or Georgia except for a quick vehicle-swap after the ill-fated trip to Costa Rica more than a month ago. Looks like I blew a hole in that friendship, too. That seems to be my style nowdays. I could list a whole bunch of others who don’t like me anymore.
I’ve got only a few more people to go and I will have succeeded in what I’ve been trying to do all along. I launched a “Garbo Project” about three years ago, and it’s worked well so far. Just give me another couple of months and I’ll get exactly what I was aiming for.
“I want to be alone.”
Drifting is effortless, Ctns don’t have to deliberately walk away You don’t have to do anything to drift.
Drifting is with the current
Drifting is usually downward
Life is filled with choices.
All of us drift for awhile. We may be unaware of it. But then we notice it.
We don’t seem to have the same excitement or motivation Then we are faced with a choice to either go with the flow
Or to fight the current we feel so strongly.
Admonition: Heed the Word and Don’t Drift (Heb. 2:1–4
The danger here is drifting through neglect!
It is easy to drift with the current, but it is difficult to return against the stream. Our salvation is a “great salvation,” purchased at a great price. It brings with it great promises and blessings, and it leads to a great inheritance in glory. How can we neglect it?
A. Therefore we must!
For this reason, on this account
Since God has spoken to us not through prophets or angels but in His Son
These truths have implications!
It is a necessity = it is to our advantage or profit
B. Pay closer attention – (how do we do this?)
It is imperative that we take seriously the revelation that has come to us through Him pay even more attention to what we’ve heard!
Lit: Give heed more abundantly!
Christ is God’s last word to us!
He is greater than the prophets.
He is far greater than the angels.
So, we must pay more abundant attention
Pay attention to God’s Word and obey it.
Listen to what has been said
Turn your mind to something and focus to act on what you’ve heard
C. To What We’ve Heard
We must know it and remember it!
Matthew 7:24-27 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” ”
James 1:21-25 “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
The exhortation is to give more earnest heed to the New Testament message, and the warning, against letting that truth slip away. The nature of the sin of Adam was a careless, indifferent attitude towards the commands of God.
A failure to pay attention to what you’ve heard
This failure to hear is due to a carelessness in paying attention to what God had to say.
ILL: The story of Steve and Paula Wittman The O and O Special
Be careful…that is hot!
Table saw…
Door slamming on fingers
Nail gun…bam
II. The Consequences
A. Vague
2:2-4. Inasmuch as under the Old Covenant, which was instituted through angelic ministration (Gal. 3:19), there were severe penalties for infractions of its demands, the readers could not suppose there would be no penalties for drifting away from the New Covenant.
On the contrary, with tantalizing vagueness, the author asked, How shall we escape (Heb. 12:25) if we ignore such a great salvation?
If the readers lost sight of the ultimate victory and deliverance that was promised to them in connection with the Son’s own final victory, they could expect retribution.
What its nature might be the writer did not spell out, but it would be unwarranted to think he was talking about hell. The “we” which pervades the passage shows that the author included himself among those who needed to pay close attention to these truths.
B. Salvation
The “salvation,” of course, is the same as that just mentioned in 1:14
The “tie” between Chpt 1 & 2
“Salvation” found 7 times in Hebrews – more than any other NT book
Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream (Mt 1)
“Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife
What has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit
She will give birth to a son and you will give him the name “Jesus”. Because he will save his people from their sins”
Luke 1:76-78 “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high”
Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
Salvation begins with a moral cleansing from sin.
Philippians 2:12-13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
I love this statement by Ray Stedman concerning salvation as a process
“The author is deeply persuaded that a personal relationship with Christ expressed in repentance and faith determines the believer’s salvation. But in the teaching of the letter, salvation is clearly portrayed as an ongoing process.”
He goes on to say
“That Jesus, “the author of their salvation” should be “perfected through suffering” (2:10) makes salvation an infinitely precious gift”
Story of the Hymn
“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” composer, Robert Robinson, Converted under the mighty preaching of George Whitefield, but that later he drifted from the Lord, He had been greatly used as a pastor, but neglect of spiritual things led him astray. In an attempt to find peace, he began to travel. During one of his journeys, he met a young woman who was spiritually minded.
“What do you think of this hymn I have been reading?” she asked Robinson, handing him the book. It was his own hymn! He tried to avoid her question but it was hopeless, for the Lord was speaking to him. Finally, he broke down and confessed who he was and how he had been living away from the Lord.
“But these ‘streams of mercy’ are still flowing,” the woman assured him; and through her encouragement, Robinson was restored to fellowship with the Lord.
3. (Compare Heb 2:3.) Argument
spoken by angels—the Mosaic law spoken by the ministration of angels (De 33:2; Ps 68:17; Ac 7:53; Ga 3:19). When it is said, Ex 20:1, “God spake,” it is meant He spake by angels as His mouthpiece, or at least angels repeating in unison with His voice the words of the Decalogue; whereas the Gospel was first spoken by the Lord alone.
was steadfast—Greek, “was made steadfast,” or “confirmed”: was enforced by penalties on those violating it.
transgression—by doing evil; literally, overstepping its bounds: a positive violation of it.
disobedience—by neglecting to do good: a negative violation of it.
recompense—(De 32:35).
III. Confirmation!
We—who have received the message of salvation so clearly delivered to us (compare Heb 12:25).
so great salvation—embodied in Jesus, whose very name means “salvation,” including not only deliverance from foes and from death, and the grant of temporal blessings (which the law promised to the obedient), but also grace of the Spirit, forgiveness of sins, and the promise of heaven, glory, and eternal life (Heb 2:10).
spoken by the Lord—as the instrument of proclaiming it. Not as the law, spoken by the instrumentality of angels (Heb 2:2). Both law and Gospel came from God; the difference here referred to lay in the instrumentality by which each respectively was promulgated (compare Heb 2:5). Angels recognize Him as “the Lord” (Mt 28:6; Lu 2:11).
confirmed unto us—not by penalties, as the law was confirmed, but by spiritual gifts (Heb 2:4).
confirmed to them by the immediate hearers of the Lord: the past tense, “was confirmed,” implies some little time had elapsed since this testification by eye-witnesses.
5. them—rather, “God also [as well as Christ, Heb 2:3] bearing witness to it,” joining in attestation of it.”
signs and wonders—performed by Christ and His apostles. “Signs” and miracles, or other facts regarded as proofs of a divine mission; “wonders” are miracles viewed as prodigies, causing astonishment (Ac 2:22, 33); “powers” are miracles viewed as evidences of superhuman power.
divers miracles—Greek, “varied (miraculous) powers” (2Co 12:12) granted to the apostles after the ascension.
gifts—Greek, “distributions.” The gift of the Holy Spirit was given to Christ without measure (Jn 3:34), but to us it is distributed in various measures and operations (Ro 12:3, 6, &c. 1Co 12:4–11) according to his own will—God’s free and sovereign will, assigning one gift of the Spirit to one, another to another (Ac 5:32; Eph 1:5).