Maybe you've heard these lyrics. Day after day, I'm more confused. Yet I look for the light through the pouring rain. You know that's a game that I hate to lose. And I'm feeling the strain. Ain't it a shame? Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul. I want to get lost in your rock and roll and drift away. That's the song, Drift Away. It was popularized by Dobie Gray. I know I'm showing my age and putting my boomer status on full display with that illustration, but the song truly was a massive hit. It resonated with people because it offered a way to deal with the stresses and strains of a chaotic world. Just turn on the right jam, kick back, and let your mind drift away. And let's face it, there's some music that's so comfortable and so soothing and so peaceful You just find yourself wanting to tune in so you can tune out. That's not necessarily a bad thing, a little bit of musical drifting away. But that mindset can be spiritually catastrophic if we apply it to our Christian lives. Neglecting our Christian life and drifting away from it, left unchecked, is basically the tragedy but well-known path that inevitably leads to apostasy. If we're not consciously proactive where our faith is concerned, we put ourselves in grave danger by drifting. C.S. Lewis captured this well in his book, Mere Christianity, where he writes, we have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined 100 people who say they've lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of Christianity by some honest argument. Did not most people simply drift away? If I can be Captain Obvious, the answer to Lewis's question is yes. Most people who walk away from the faith drift away. Very few people leave the Christian faith because they've heard a compelling argument against Christianity or simply woke up one morning and decided to do an about-face from Christ. That's not how most people end up turning from Christ. They drift away. And obviously, Lewis isn't the first one to identify the dangers of drifting. As we return to our study in Hebrews this morning, the author has appointed warning against the spiritual danger of drifting away. So let's seek the Lord's face in prayer and we'll get to work. Our great God in heaven, as we heard in Sunday school this morning, your word is powerful. but we need the attending work of the Holy Spirit. And so we pray for that. We plead with you to grant us that power, the Spirit's power, so that as your word goes forth, it will accomplish precisely what you intend. We ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. Let me ask you to open up your copy of scripture to Hebrews 2, Hebrews 2. We're going to read verses 1 through 4. This is God's word. Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we've heard, lest we drift away. For if the words spoken through angels prove steadfast, and every transgression and disobedient received a just reward, 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. Well, there ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word. May it bless it to our hearts this morning. Dearest congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, among the many reasons the book of Hebrews is a delight to study is that it brings together both doctrine and practice. The book is saturated with fabulous and rich theology concerning the person and work of Jesus and how he is at the center of God's covenant plan of redemption. But this wonderful book does something else too. As it presents Christ in all his fullness, it demands a response. In other words, we find that Hebrews will first give us doctrine about Christ, who he is, what he's accomplished, and then we're told how we're to live, how we're to respond to that. And Hebrews will give strong and direct pastoral exhortations. Let me put it this way, Hebrews teaches us orthodoxy, which is right gospel thinking, and then it teaches us orthopraxy, which is right gospel living. Now the entire first chapter was teaching us orthodoxy about Christ to help us see Him in all of His glory and supremacy. In the first three verses of chapter one, we've been taught that Jesus is our supreme prophet, our supreme priest, and our supreme king. Then in verses four through 14, He's presented as supreme over the angels. I mean, to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I've begotten you? The answer, of course, is to none of them. Jesus has a better name than the angels. He's got a name that's above all others. He's the only begotten Son of God. From our perspective, angels are pretty awesome. But like us, angels bow down and they worship Christ. He is supreme over the angels. And of course, all this orthodoxy about Christ is to convey an important message that there's nothing greater than Jesus and the salvation he's accomplished for us. But you may have noticed that in the entirety of that first chapter, there are no commands, there are no exhortations, there are no imperatives. It's just theology, it's just orthodoxy. And when we come to chapter two, we get application, we get orthopraxy. Now, one of the things we're going to find as we move forward in our study of Hebrews is that the applications will come by way of exhortation and then through some extremely sharp and pointed warnings. And we're given one of those hard-hitting warnings this morning. Now, with God's help, this is how we're going to unpack our text. Under three headings, we're going to see an exhortation, which is basically pay attention to the gospel. We're gonna see a warning. If you don't pay attention, you're in danger of drifting, and there's no escape if you drift too far. And then we're given, the third point will be we're given reasons why we must take this warning seriously and mustn't drift. So listen again to the exhortation there in verse one, therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we've heard. You've likely heard the quip that whenever you come to the word therefore in the Bible, you need to ask the question, what's it there for? And more often than not, it's to connect what's just been said with what's about to be said. And here the writer of Hebrews is saying, I've told you about Jesus. I've grounded you in good theology. You know who Jesus is. You know he's supreme in every way. Therefore, this is how you're to respond. We must give the more earnest heed to the things we've heard." Now, this is a fascinating phrase in the original language because it's just packed with superlatives. What I'm about to say, I know it's going to sound a bit stilted, but this would be a more literal way of translating what we just read. It is excessively necessary for us to diligently pay attention to what we've heard. Now, here's something we're going to discover as we plow ahead in Hebrews. The author's going to occasionally use nautical terms. And this first phrase, take heed, is a word that a sailor might use to speak of firmly securing an anchor, to have a ship that's moored up tightly to the dock or in a port. And when we get to the warning in just a minute, the warning against drifting, the word from drifting also is a nautical term that has to do with a ship whose anchor ceases to hold. So the basic exhortation here is make sure you're solidly anchored to Christ. And how do we do that? By diligently and attentively grounding your Christian life to the things we have heard. In other words, ground your Christian life in the message of the gospel, the message about Jesus Christ. Ground your life in the glorious story of redemption that tells how a defiled man or woman like you or me can enter into a saving relationship with a perfectly holy God. Ground your life in the story of God the Son stepping down from heaven, taking on flesh, dying on a cross to pay the complete and full payment for the sins of the elect. Ground your life in a story of how he has secured for you and I an unfailing salvation, and not just for you, not just for me, but all those who turn to him in faith and repentance. That's the message that the Hebrews and those of us here have to take heed to, basically the old, old story of Jesus and his love, the gospel. That's the heart of this exhortation to this group of Hebrew Christians and to us. to remain firmly anchored to Jesus. And to remain firmly anchored to Jesus, you have to make sure you're constantly hearing the gospel story and about his salvation. Nothing, nothing, nothing should be more precious to a Christian than Christ. And nothing should be more captivating to our attention than the gospel. and what it tells us about him. And listen, this takes effort. It takes intentionality. One of the main causes of drifting in our circles, and by our circles, I mean in Reformed churches who have a real commitment to doctrine, is the perception that you're so familiar with the gospel, you know it so well, that you don't need to keep hearing it over and over and over. It's the thinking, you know, I can explain all those banners that are hanging behind Pastor Byrd. I know what they mean. I can explain them. I've been there. I've done that. I got the T-shirt. I'm familiar with them. This is the very cause that many a believer and many a church end up resulting in drifting away from orthodoxy. They become so familiar with gospel truth in their mind that they don't think it needs to be rehearsed daily, weekly, annually in their lives. It's an undue familiarity with the gospel that thinks, I've got that. And I get that familiarity can be a problem. Many of you know I grew up outside of Washington, D.C., and when I was a child, going to Washington, D.C. was such a treat. To go see the Lincoln Memorial and then the Washington Monument, right? That was just simply off the charts cool. Well, later, I worked in D.C. for many, many years, and every day I had to drive down Constitution Avenue, and you know what I passed? the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument. I actually hung a left at 2nd and Mass Avenue, went up past the Hart Senate building there on the right, and my office was right over here. And so every time I saw the Washington Monument or the Lincoln Memorial, you know what I saw? Tourists who were in my way and making me late for work. That's what familiarity can do. But we're not talking about those monuments. We're talking about the gospel that saves us eternally. We can't let that infect us. And one of the ways fools deal with familiarity is by innovation. Oh, we're so used to this. We've got to do something new. And I think every generation in church history has people who think, we're going to have to come up with a new way to do things. We need to do something differently. We need to do something that won't feel familiar and old. And so they think they need to reinvent the wheel. Here's the problem. The wheel doesn't need to be reinvented because the wheel was created by God. I've said this so many times over the years. Listen, if I see someone who's in spiritual distress or they just had a catastrophic spiritual fall, I can grant you one, two, or three things is going on in their life. One, they're not in the word. Two, they're not in prayer. Three, they're not gathering for corporate worship. Inevitably, if somebody falls, they're going to be negligent in one of those three areas. And so if somebody wants to reinvent the wheel, I'm all right with that, so long as it's got three words, the word, prayer, and corporate worship in it. Otherwise, you're going to end up with a flat tire. Innovation is not what we want. We're the gospel's concern. The constancy of the means of grace is what we need. Hebrews is telling us our souls have to be anchored in the gospel. And frankly, there's nothing more applicable in the Christian life than getting the gospel right and tightening our grip on it. And the problem, if we have the problem of familiarity, if we have the problem of thinking we need something else, the problem's with us, not the gospel. We must give the more earnest heed to the things we've heard. Well, let's take a minute and look at this actual warning. Pay attention, secure your anchor in the gospel, lest we drift away. Wow. This is actually the first of five major warning passages that we're going to encounter in our study of the book of Hebrews. And the force of these warnings is such that Christians will often try to explain them away. Certainly, the author of Hebrews is not teaching that a born-again believer can ultimately drift from the gospel. A genuine believer may drift at times. They may even be entrapped by a besetting sin. That happens. But the Spirit of God will always convict the true child of God of their sin, and God's grace will always result in repentance, and they will be truly sorry for their sin, and they will turn from that. God will preserve his chosen ones. The Bible's clear. When God sovereignly sets his electing grace and mercy on someone, they are firmly within his grip, and not one will slip through his fingers. You can be confident that if God's begun a good work in you, he'll carry it on to completion, even to the day of Jesus Christ. So this warning, as well as the others we're going to look at in Hebrews, are not given to shake the confidence of true believers. They're given as a means of grace. Those who have been regenerated by the Spirit, we hear these warnings. And they encourage us to strengthen ourselves in God's persevering grace. When an unregenerate person hears these, even in the context of the covenant community, it's meant to cause them to come to conviction. Because that happens in the covenant community. right? There are folks who profess to be believers who espouse some orthodox facts may be involved in doing this or that thing, for the church who actually have outward religion but they don't have a transformed heart, and for those what the Puritans called false professors The warnings you find in a passage like Hebrew is meant to prick their conscience and to instill in them this need, that they actually need Jesus Christ, they need to repent of their sin, and then they need to lay hold of him with the empty hand of faith, so they're false professors. These are warnings that are meant to be cause to repentance for true Christians. These are means of grace that sort of function as guide rails to keep us on the narrow path that leads to glory. Well, as I mentioned, that word for drifting, is another nautical term. And it has in view a ship whose anchor is simply beginning to slip loose from its hold, an anchor that's just sort of come out of the loose ground at the bottom of a body of water. And because the anchor isn't grounded, the ship just begins to simply, slowly drift away. This isn't really hard imagery to get. Without a secure anchor, The ship's carried away in whatever direction the current takes. And by the way, the current that you and I live in is the current of the world. They are never going to be taking us in the right place. I had an occasion last week to read about William Perry. He was an English explorer, and for like 50 years he had explored further, more of the North Pole than anyone else. And he tells an amazing story how they had gone all the way up through what are now called the Perry Islands in the northernmost part of Canada. And they were moving into areas, islands, that they wanted to chart heading toward the North Pole. And they had to stop their ship because of ice. And they got off. And they moved north on foot. And they're just braving this bitter, cold weather. And they walked, and they walked, and they walked. And it didn't seem like they were making any headway. This was dark. Finally, the little bit of light they had came out. It was at the North Pole. And they were able to sort of get their bearings. And they realized what was happening. They were actually on an ice shelf that was drifting south slowly, but more quickly than they were walking north. That's how our Christian lives can be if we're not careful about preventing the drift, right? There's a world that wants to take us in the wrong direction. And as C.S. Lewis rightly reminds us, that's rarely gonna result in a person who doesn't about faith. They just start to drift and drift and drift. They don't say, I've had enough of Jesus, I'm through with it. they stop paying attention. Slowly, quietly, they start drifting toward hell. One day they woke up and they realized amazing grace doesn't seem so amazing anymore. It kind of seems boring, or best common. So we're gonna go to church less. They have no enthusiasm to study God's word, to commune with God in prayer, or to fellowship with the saints in worship. These are folks who don't really have a beef with the church or with Jesus, at least not initially. They just drift away into indifference. And listen, a great many of our friends are in this category, and we think we're being good-natured by leaving them in that category. We are not. We are not being good-natured. We're being hateful. If we love them, if we love our friends, if we love our family members, we're drifting. We'll show them these warnings. That's what they're for. Again, a true child of God is never going to drift for long. God's grace will always prick their conscience. They'll always long to again hear Jesus, and they'll always come back to wanting to pay attention to Jesus. But it is a dangerous thing for those who hear the gospel, and it becomes, eh, bland, dull. That's a person who's drifting, and it is incredibly dangerous because the drifting, left unchecked, carries a person to hell. So the exhortation here is secure, your anchor, pay attention. And the warning is if you don't, you're in danger of drifting. Now, a third point, we find there are two reasons given to encourage us not to drift. The first reason is simply this, if we drift, if we fail to anchor ourselves to the gospel, where will we find hope? Listen again, I'm gonna go ahead and read verses two and the first part of verse three. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Now, obviously, the first thing we have to understand is what exactly is meant here by the word spoken through angels? Well, it's the law that was given at Mount Sinai, right? This is cryptic language to be sure, but here's a few things we know. About 40 years after the law was given, when Moses was remembering the events of Mount Sinai in Deuteronomy 33, he actually spoke of 10,000 angels who were with God. when he gave Israel the law. We don't know what the angels were doing. We don't know what role they played, but they obviously had some role. And we get some other information about this in a couple different New Testament references. In Acts 7, 53, when Stephen was before the Sanhedrin, just before he was martyred, he said to his accusers that they had received the law that was put into effect through angels. And in Galatians 3.19, the apostle said almost the same thing. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. Again, it's hard to know exactly what is meant by angels bringing the law to his people. I suspect they were praising God as the law was administered, but we simply don't know. But the main point here is that the word spoken through angels is the old covenant law given to Israel. Now, the reason the writer of Hebrews wants us to think Old Testament law is that he's going to make an argument now from the lesser to the greater. If they receive certain punishment under the old covenant law, how much greater will the punishment be under the gospel? Now, this way of arguing from lesser to the greater is something that would have been very familiar to these Hebrew Christians. It's something that there are actually certain parts of the Hebrew and Greek language that have this built in as a rhetorical device so that you make this argument from the lesser to the greater. Let me give you an illustration so you know how this works. Imagine you came to me and said, hey, Pastor Byrd, can Can you keep this old tire for me in your garage? And I said, sure. And I put your old tire in my garage. And a couple of years pass, and you come back, and you say, hey, you know what? I forgot about that tire. You still got it? Sure. I go in my garage, and I can't find it. Come to find out my wife threw it away. Oh, I'm so sorry. Probably not a big deal. However, you come to me and you say, hey, we're going to be traveling, and I've got these really precious gems and this jewelry that's a family heirloom. It's worth tens of thousands of dollars, and we don't want to leave it in our house. Could you keep track of that for me while we go on vacation? And I say, sure. You come back from vacation. I'll say, you know, I think my wife might have thrown that out. Well, that's going to be different. You see, from the lesser to the greater makes a huge difference, right? And so the point in Hebrews is if every transgression and disobedience received a just reward in the old covenant, that's the lesser, how much more if we neglect so great a salvation that's provided for us in the complete promises of the gospel. And the Old Testament has so many pictures of this punishment unfolding on Israel. For example, in Numbers 15, it tells of a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath. And the people, they see him doing this, they put a guard on him so they can figure out what to do with him. And the Lord told Moses to take the man outside the camp and stone him to death, right? Wow, that's under the old covenant. Or in number 16, when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram had an uprising against Moses and the ground swallowed them up. And that's an old covenant picture. And the old covenant is filled with those kind of examples. How much more serious is it if we neglect the salvation that's offered and the full and final gospel of Jesus Christ? By the way, this should dispel the myth that God's standards are somehow more lax in New Testament times. You'll often hear people say things like, in the Old Testament, God was much more concerned with holiness, and that's why we see so much wrath and judgment. But in the New Testament, He's a gentler God. He's a God of love. He's more about grace. That is such a wrong view of God. Under the gospel, the ultimate disobedience is hell. And we err if we think the demands of the gospel are less exacting than those of the law. We also err if we think the grace means that we can be sloppy. about God's standard of holiness. Think of it this way. In the old covenant, God gave the sacrifice of bulls and goats, and every time the blood of these animals was spilled, it was to remind Israel how seriously God takes His holiness, how seriously God takes their sin, how seriously God takes righteousness. How much more is that the case with the blood of His only begotten Son having been spilled? The blood of the unblemished lamb has been poured out. How great is the condemnation for those who spurn and blaspheme that sacrifice by drifting away from it. And think about it this way, Jesus taught the law and he taught that he didn't come to abolish it, but to fulfill it. And in his teaching on the Sermon on the Mount, he made it clear that outward obedience never actually met the demands of the law. The requirement was always heartfelt obedience motivated by love. Jesus brought a fuller revelation of God's redemption, and that means there's actually greater responsibilities. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? The second reason to encourage us not to drift is because the message of the gospel is attested by God himself. Listen again to verses three and four. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? excuse me, 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. So the message is even more direct than the message of the old covenant given at Sinai because God came in the flesh. God came to personally deliver the message. In some sense, yes, the angels mediated the law, but Jesus alone mediates the gospel. That's what the writer of Hebrews means when he says that the great salvation was first spoken by the Lord. It's not a message that comes from the great philosophers of the day. It's not a message that comes from pop psychologists like Dr. Phil or New Agers like Oprah. The gospels come from the one who has the name that's better than the name of angels, God's son. And the glad tithings of Jesus was confirmed to the writer of Hebrews by the apostles. They were eyewitnesses of Jesus' ministry and specifically his resurrection. Have you ever considered that the Roman authorities and the Jewish religious establishment would have paid a fortune if someone could have just produced Jesus' corpse? If this was a fictional story, it's inconceivable that the apostles would have given their lives and everything they had to follow Jesus after his death. but they did give everything. As far as we know, John's the only apostle who wasn't martyred and he was exiled to the island of Patmos. The salvation of Christ, the hope of the gospel is great. It's a great salvation because it's true, because it was delivered to us by the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. How shall we escape? if we neglect so great a salvation. Well beloved, are you paying attention to the gospel? Or is there some here who are neglecting so great a salvation? Don't neglect, don't neglect being loved by God. Don't neglect being forgiven and accepted and protected and strengthened by Almighty God. Don't neglect the sacrifice of Christ's life on the cross. Don't neglect the free gift of righteousness imputed by faith. Don't reject or neglect the removal of God's wrath. and the reconciled smile of God. Don't neglect the indwelling Holy Spirit and the fellowship and friendship of the living Christ. Don't neglect the radiance of God's glory in the face of Jesus. Don't neglect the free access to the throne of grace. Don't neglect the inexhaustible treasures of God's promises. This is our great salvation. Don't neglect so great a salvation. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you, O God, that it provides warnings and threatenings even for your true children. not to make us uncertain about our salvation, but to give us earnestness and steadfastness to appropriate Christ and all that He's accomplished for us, to lean into and rely upon the means of grace that You've provided us. And we pray that these warnings and these threatenings will have that good, gracious purpose in the lives of your people. If there are those among us who are drifting because in their heart of hearts, they don't see Jesus as wonderful and glorious. They see him only as a convenience or a convention. We pray these warnings will be used to bring them to repentance and to savingly lay hold of Jesus. Work powerfully through these warnings and help us to be men and women of God who will never neglect so great a salvation. Amen. Brothers and sisters, as we prepare to come to the Lord's table, and this is one of the means of grace that God's provided for us. By the way, I mentioned the word prayer and corporate worship, the word that's projected verbally or the word you read, and also the visible word. That's how the Reformers have typically understood the sacrament. It goes all the way back to the days of Augustine. This is a visible proclamation of the gospel, and it's just what our souls need. need. Now the invitation to come and participate in this sacrament is extended to all those who are trusting exclusively in Jesus Christ. Those who have given up any effort or any desire to think that their works could merit a right standing with God. This is for people who are trusting solely in Christ for righteousness, and who are living in that cycle of repentance. It's a means of grace, which means it's not a table for good people, but it is a table for people who are acknowledging their sin, repenting of it, seeking the power of the gospel to overcome it. If that describes you, please do come and feast. If it doesn't describe you, or if you're living in unrepentant sin, when the elements are distributed, let them pass by. Next time, go home, repent. Next time, come back and celebrate with us. As you know, we confess before the Lord's Supper is the Apostles' Creed. You can find that on page 851 in the back of your hymnal, 851. Dear Christian, what do you believe? I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Then I want to ask you to give your attention to the reading of God's Word from 1 Corinthians 10, verses 16 and 17. Then I have a meditation from John Willison. Willison actually wrote an entire catechism on the Lord's Supper, so I'm borrowing a few of his questions and answers. But first here, God's Word from 1 Corinthians 10, verses 16 and 17. The cup of blessing which we bless. Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread. So again, you can follow along or listen, but it is printed there in your bulletin. Again, it's in a catechetical structure, so it begins with a question. Why is it called the Lord's Table? because he's the author of it. Yeah, he's both the maker and the matter of this entertainment, the feeder and the food also. Why is it called the communion? Because in the right partaking of this ordinance, we have communion and fellowship with Christ, share with him in the benefits of his death and purchase, and also have communion with one another. Why is it called the breaking of bread? Because in this ordinance bread is broken and made use of as the outward symbol and seal of Christ's wounded and broken body with all the glorious benefits flowing therefrom. Why is it called the cup of blessing? Because, in two reasons, first, in using it, we bless God for his free love toward us in Christ. Second, it contains offers and seals to us in a sacramental way, all the blessings of the new covenant. Why is it called Christ's Testament? Because in this ordinance we have Christ's testament and last will sealed and a copy of it put into the believer's hand containing the rich legacies he's left now. Why is it called a feast? Because hereby the believers are richly entertained by Christ, having sweet intimacy with him and great expressions of his love. And their souls are nourished and strengthened for duty. It's both a marriage feast and a feast of commemoration. Well, let's pray. Our great God, we are thankful for this covenant meal. We're thankful, oh God, that it is a sign and seal of all the glorious promises of covenant of grace fulfilled by Jesus Christ. We're thankful, oh God, when we take these common elements which remain bread and remain wine, that when we take them by faith, we truly are nourished spiritually by Christ's body and blood. And so give us hands and mouths of faith that we might take and eat and take and drink and be blessed in our communion with Jesus. We ask these things in his precious name, amen. Well, receive the Lord's benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forever. And all of God's people said, Amen.