COMMITMENT

Hebrews 2 verses 1-4

Commitment

I read recently of a professor who wanted to show his students how easily distracted they were. He asked a student to leave the room and he asked the other students to keep alert for the return of that student.  He then continued with his lecture and at one point another person entered from the other side of the lecture theater  at that moment the student also returned and resumed his seat.  Very few of the other students noticed his return until the professor asked him a question.  They were told to pay attention to one door but were distracted by someone entering another door.  How often did you hear in school or at home pay attention?  We are so easily distracted from things.  We lose focus very easily.  Hebrews 2 begins with just such an exhortation Pay attention.  Turn to Hebrews 2 verses 1- 4 and let us see what we are to pay attention to 

Context.

The letter to the Hebrews was written around AD70 to a predominantly Jewish Christians who were being tempted to return again to Judaism or to join add Jewish ceremonial law on to the gospel of grace.  The author does not identify himself.  The main theme of the letter is to reassure the believers that Christ is both superior to the old law and sufficient for their salvation.  Chapter 1 outlines his superiority and the sufficiency of his sacrifice on the cross to purify them from sin and its consequences.

Chapter 2 verse 1.

Hence the second chapter begins with an exhortation that in light of the superiority of Christs sacrifice to the animal sacrifices and the sufficiency of his sacrifice for the purification of their sins they are to pay more careful attention.  Note will you what it is that they are to pay careful attention to what they have heard which has just been briefly outlined in chapter 1 namely the superiority and sufficiency of Christs sacrifice for sin.  I want to stop here for a moment and for us all to make a mental note to what we have heard.  Let me read for you something which Paul wrote to the believers in Rome  Romans 10 verses 14-15, 17.  Paul and the author of the letter to the Hebrews both emphasize the need for hearing the gospel.  Christ on several occasions said let him who has ears hear.  The world in which we live lays great emphasis on seeing but the gospel comes first and foremost through hearing.  The author to the Hebrews writes they are to pay more careful attention to what they have heard.  The Greek word used there speaks about bringing a ship in to land, to moor it safely and securely.  When it is used of people it speaks about laying hold and cleaving to something or attaching oneself to something.  So the exhortation is calling them to secure, lay hold of tightly, or attach themselves to the gospel of the superiority and sufficiency of Christs sacrifice for sin.  Why?  Well he goes on to say to them so that we do not drift away.  Again the Greek word used there is applying the imagery of a ship which has drifted past its safe anchorage point and is drifting into danger.  It also speaks of flowing alongside something and of a ring slipping unnoticed from a finger.  The author to the Hebrews exhorts them to secure themselves to the gospel which they have heard and not to drift from it  as some of them are apparently in danger of doing.

But stop there for a moment.  Who is in danger of drifting from the security of the gospel?  The Christian believers are the people who are in danger of drifting.  How? Well the rest of the letter to the Hebrews answers how but primarily it is answered for us in verse 3 (read verse 3).  They are ignoring or as an older translation puts it neglecting the salvation offered by Christs atoning sacrifice for sin.  Turn for a moment to verse 2  the author writes that the Old Covenant of the Law was binding on them and violation of that covenant law brought punishment then the New Covenant in the blood of Christ being superior to the Old would most certainly bring punishment.  The New Covenant was brought into force personally by the Son of God  its sufficiency and superiority will be dramatically outlined in chapter 9 when the author writes of how the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin whereas the blood of bulls and goats could only cleanse them ceremonially but not spiritually.  Then in verse 3 the author points out the danger of neglecting or ignoring this salvation which comes in and through the finished work of Christ.  But how would they neglect, ignore or drift away from such a salvation.  Having heard of its superiority, having heard of its sufficiency to save from sin and the wrath of God and having, verse 4, had it verified by God through signs, wonders, miracles and the gifts of the Holy Spirit how could they neglect it and drift from it.

Do you remember the Exon Valdez disaster?  It happened at Blighs Reef near Canada.  The Exon Valdez drifted on to rocks and disgorged 11million gallons of crude oil into the sea.  How did it happen?  A third mate was left in charge of the vessel and he was drunk and he neglected to pay attention to what was happening the ship and it drifted slowly on to the reef and the resulting environmental disaster.  It didn't happen quickly but slowly the ship drifted towards the danger until it was too late to escape.  The same is true of these Christians and for us today.  Like a small leak in a bucket slowly little by little the water escapes.  The same is true for us spiritually.  In my time as a Christian I have only ever met one person who consciously walked away from God but I have lost count of the number of people who drifted slowly away from the gospel of grace.  What was the danger in the first century and now?

You drift when you fail to heed the warnings and you neglect to pay attention to what you have heard from the Word of God.  So you slowly begin to lose your priorities and your focus on your relationship with Christ.  Your passion for Christ and the things of God begins to wane.  You lose your discipline and so you start to neglect to meet with other Christians and not just on Sunday mornings.  Seriously how many of you who are Christians are lax about your attendance at church on Sunday mornings. It is the first sign of drift and neglect of your salvation.  You then move to appease your conscience over this drift from the gospel that you heard.  You appease your conscience over the drift in discipline, your lack of bible reading and prayer, your neglect of fellowship.  Then the next stage in the drift is that you will distance yourself from being associated with Christ.  You haven't yet reached the stage of outright denial of knowing him but you begin to put some distance between yourself and the gospel.  So you begin to put arguments up against biblical standards in morality, in behavior and you begin to soften your attitude towards what the Bible teaches about sin and its consequences.  Then one day you find yourself in the place of opposition to the gospel, of outright denial of what it teaches.  How did you get there?  Let me tell you how you got there  you drifted.  You're the lost sheep who has his head down grazing and all the time wandering away from the Shepherd and the security of the sheep fold.  You graze and wander, graze and wander  ever further away.  You're the people spoken of in the parable of the banquet of Matthew 22.  They were invited to the feast of the king.  They knew they had been invited.  They understood the invitation but they drifted along with the other things in their lives and found out one day the door was closed and the invitation was no longer open to them.  Let me read a verse to you from Ezekiel 33.32.  I think a more apt description of the attitude of many to the salvation offered in Christ alone could not be found.  Does it describe you?  The result of the drifting from the gospel for the recipients of this letter to the Hebrews was that they had lost their assurance of salvation because they had drifted from what they had heard.  They had lost their peace and security and so had started to look for that peace and security not in the Word of God but in the ritual and ceremonies of the Old familiar Law.  What about?  Are you assured of your salvation?  Do you have peace and security in the gospel you heard and first believed when you came to Christ?  The danger is you will neglect it and drift from it, not consciously but unconsciously.  Little by little the water will leak from the bucket and one day you will waken up (DV) and wonder why there is such a distance between you and Christ.  You will realize that there is no longer any fruit in your life and there is no joy in your salvation because you have drifted away from the secure anchorage of the gospel.  Friends listen to me this morning if ever there was a timely message for us all this morning then these verses from Hebrews are them.  We drift so easily.  We sleepwalk into the distance, away from Christ and his great salvation.

In closing let me speak for a moment to those who  find themselves either having drifted or never having come to Christ. the author in verse 3 says how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation.  The implication of the word escape is that there must be something from which we need rescuing if we neglect the offer of salvation found in Christ alone.  Hebrews 1 has told us part of what that is  the consequences of our sins, and verse 2 of chapter 2 tells us that punishment awaits us if we neglect this offer of salvation.  It may not be popular today, it has never been popular, but the truth  is that if we neglect the offer of salvation offered us in Christ then we will face eternal punishment for our sins. The Bible calls that eternal punishment hell, separation from God for eternity. Matthew describes that moment with these words weeping and gnashing of teeth.  A picture of anguish and despair.  But the good news, the eternal good news, is that God desires no one to go there but that all might come to the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus.  How?  By the very fact that he sent his only begotten Son into the world not to condemn the world but to save the world. That through the finished work of Christ Jesus on the cross all who by repentance and faith come to him might not perish but have eternal life. In Matthew 1 verse 21 we are told Christ Jesus will save his people from their sins.  In 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 10 we are told he will deliver them from the wrath of God which is to come upon all sin.

So the question remains:  Drifting or Committed?

The challenge:  Pay attention  don't drift.

Amen.