Hebrews 2:1-4 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; 3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; 4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

Opening: I often order items through companies like Amazon or Walmart, because I can’t find what I want locally. It saves a lot of gas and running around, especially when I’m looking for something like an “UHB to Ethernet Adapter”. I may have to pay shipping, but I can find exactly what I want and have it delivered. Most of the time. There are times when what I ordered is late coming in, and I get a little nervous if it was delivered to the wrong address. Thank goodness that the UPS Driver always takes a picture of what he delivered when he delivered it, so I can find it.

If you weren’t at Church when I presented this, you can’t see the confusing, blurred, indecipherable image that UPS sent to my email. Take my word for it, I couldn’t tell (ane neither could you) where the package was delivered, nor even if it was dropped off on Planet Earth.

Are You Walking With Purpose Or Are You Drifting?

Word Study: In Chapter One the Lord emphasizes that Jesus is God’s only Christ, the Only Messiah. As we enter Chapter Two the Word of God uses the word THEREFORE, which is two words in the Greek dia touto, a prepositional phrase which means “on account of this”.

Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

In Chapter One of Hebrews we were given no commands, but God put the spotlight on Jesus. God told us:

God spoke to humanity through His Son (vs 1-2)
God’s Son created and upholds all things (vs 2-3)
God’s Son is greater than the Angels (vs 5-7)
God’s Son is God, enthroned in Heaven (vs 8-9)
God’s Son never changes but is eternal (vs 10-12)

God’s Son sits on the right hand of the Father (13)

As God’s Son Jesus is the center of all power and prestige with the Father, dia touto – “on account of this” we are told:

Hebrews 2:1 … we ought TO GIVE THE MORE EARNEST HEED to the things we have heard …

We are given our first command in Hebrews. As all that was said in Chapter One established Jesus as the center of God we are called to FOCUS on what was said … continue reading:

Hebrews 2:1 … lest at any time we should let them slip.

Word Study:The words “let them slip” is the Greek pararrhyéō, {pronounced par-ar-hroo-eh’-o}, a NAUTICAL term which means “to flow past, to glide by you, to drift away”. Most of the other translations use “drift away” (NKJV, NIV, ESV, CSB, NASB 95 & 20, LSB, NET, RSV, ASV, NLT, AMP). Again, this is a nautical term. It’s only used here in the New Testament, but is used in ancient literature for what happens when someone doesn’t properly tie up their boat.

I love watching these Discovery Channel shows about people who live in harsh climates like Alaska. In one show a man had come in with his large fishing boat, but he neglected to properly tie it to the dock. A storm came that night, and the boat was taken by the wind and the current. The next day he came out to find his boat was gone. He had a smaller bass boat that he took out, trying to find his fishing boat. When he found it it was wrecked, up on the shore. It was badly damaged, and would end up costing him thousands of dollars to repair it to make it sea worthy once more.

How does your boat get adrift? How does your life drift and find itself destroyed in the storms of this world? How did you get to that point?

You failed to tie your line to a proper anchor. You tethered yourself to the wrong thing, or failed to tether yourself to the right anchor.

The Bible tells us in Hebrews 6:19-20, “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf..”

The place we need to be tied to – the anchor of our soul – MUST be JESUS. The devil and the world is CONSTANTLY seeking to get us to tie ourselves to the wrong anchor. For instance, one thing I often hear is,

“Follow your HEART”

This is foolish. If the anchor of your soul is your heart, you have anchored yourself to a crumbling structure. The Bible says

Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

What did Jesus say about the HEART? He told us that the source of all that is evil is the unregenerate heart. Jesus said:

Mark 7:21-22 … from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

The heart is not a good thing to anchor to. Jesus told us to anchor our hearts to God. He said in Matthew 22:37, “Love the Lord your God WITH ALL YOUR HEART”. The Bible says:

Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV) Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

We are to anchor ourselves to God, to Jesus Christ, not to our hearts. Our confidence must be outside of our feelings and desires. Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed is the one who TRUSTS IN THE LORD, WHOSE CONFIDENCE IS IN HIM”. God knows what’s best for us in every situation. Tie the boat of your life not to your heart, not to your feelings, but to what God has said and has done. Give your heart to Jesus. Trust only in Him. He can keep your life anchored.

Another foolishness to anchor to is false truth. I often hear people say today,

“Live your OWN TRUTH”

Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson is the father of this philosophy. He said, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”. This is why people are trying to re-envision pronouns and human sexuality. God never said to “Live your own truth”. Jesus said:

John 17:17 … God’s WORD (the Bible) IS TRUTH

Ever since Adam ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, we as humans have tried to establish what WE think as truth. To this, Jesus says NO! Jesus said:

John 14:6 (ESV) … I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

“Jesus is the POWER of God and the WISDOM of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24). We as believers WALK with Jesus. He is the WAY, the Path that God would have us walk. We define right and wrong by Jesus. Jesus is THE TRUTH. He is not A TRUTH, but THE TRUTH. Finally, Jesus is THE LIFE. This is how God wants His Children to live. We live as Jesus says. When we define our own truth, we are adrift, hopelessly carried by the currents of this life.

Illustration: Many years ago Napoleon’s Army was marching through a desert. As the way got harder and the water ran out, at one point a soldier thought he saw a lake in front of them. Yelling “water”, he started running toward it, but after a few minutes it became apparent it was just a mirage. As Pastor George Truett once said, “Human life without God is, at best, a mirage”. We must be anchored in Christ.

How Shall We Escape …

Hebrews 2:2-3 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; 3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?…

Jesus is the only Anchor that is sure and steadfast. Now the Scripture asks us all a very good question. I love the questions of the Scripture, as they make us all think. The first question in the Bible was made by God. He asked it of Adam and Eve, but He asks us the same question today:

Genesis 3:9 … Where ARE you?

Other great questions:

Job 14:14 … if a person die, shall he live again?

Job 25:4 … Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing? How can he who is born of woman be pure?

Acts 16:30 … What must I do to be saved?

Matthew 16:26 … What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul?
What will a person give in return for his soul?

Before God asks us this Great Question, He states:

For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward

God gave His Old Testament WORD, the Scripture, “by angels”. The Word that God gave was steadfast and true. The Bible tells us in:

Jude 5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

We are told “every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense”. God made promises, and directed His Old Testament believers to trust Him, to anchor their hope on Him. When Israel refused to do this – though God had saved them – when they disobeyed they “received a just recompense”. God did right by His people, and God kept His Word. But Israel drifted. They tied their faith to the wrong thing. They tied their lives to the wrong anchor. They did not obey the Lord, and “received a just recompense”. The Bible says:

Hebrews 11:6 … without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Israel refused to follow God when God said. That generation of Israel died out in the wilderness, wandering about for forty years. Why? Because God said to go. To live tethered to Him. The questions we need to be asking ourselves AS CHRIST’S CHURCH is:

Are we listening to Jesus?
Are we here worshiping Jesus?
Is our motivation to glorify Jesus?
Are we pleasing our God?
Where are our lives anchored?

God gave Israel a great salvation, then Israel began to drift away from God. Every time things got tough, Israel murmured against God. They said:

Exodus 16:3 … Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

They drifted, because they were not tied to Jesus, but to Egypt. They were tied to their old life, their old ways. In the end, they lost all blessing. In the end, they lost the Promised Land. Pastor John Piper said:

“The life of this world is not a lake. It is a river. It is flowing downward to destruction. If you do not listen earnestly to Jesus … you will go backward. You will float by… {you will drift}”

The early Church grew by leaps and bounds because it tethered itself not to the world, but to Jesus and His Teachings. The Bible says:

Acts 2:42 (NKJV) {the Church} CONTINUED STEADFASTLY in the Apostle’s doctrine …

Acts 2:44 (NKJV) Now ALL WHO BELIEVED WERE TOGETHER, and had all things in common …

Acts 2:47 (NKJV) … PRAISING God

The Church and the Christian was firmly anchored to Jesus Christ. Focused on loving and serving God the Son, the Church enjoyed the promise of God:

Psalm 121:1-3 (NKJV) I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.

The Christian is a Christian indeed, born again of God’s Spirit, when he or she ties their hope and trust entirely to Christ.

Pastor Sam Storms wrote:

“One of the unmistakable signs that you are a true Child of God, born again and justified by faith … is that if you are drifting, you won’t continue in it for long … You will sense a desire to turn your eyes and ears and hearts back upon Jesus, and be attentive and devoted to Who He is and what He says and all that He has done”

It is as Jesus said – “you shall know them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:16), and “by this shall all know you are My disciples, that you love one another” (John 13:35).

God Has Offered Us A GREAT Salvation. What Will You Do With It?

Hebrews 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?…

There is NO ESCAPE if we neglect the great salvation God offers to us through Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 3:1 … consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

Hebrews 12:2 … Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith

If we neglect Jesus, the alternative is not good. If we anchor ourselves on ourselves and not Christ, we have no escape from the judgment of God. But if we cast ourselves on Christ, it is a GREAT Salvation for GREAT sinners. Salvation in Christ is great because IT IS ABLE.

Hebrews 7:24-25 (NKJV) But {Jesus}, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Illustrate: Jesus saves to the uttermost. Who? “Those who come to God through Him”. There is a beautiful picture that illustrates this in the Old Testament in 2 Kings 7. The Syrian Army has encamped outside of the Gates of Samaria, and four lepers are at the gates of the city. The lepers are starving to death. The lepers begin to discuss their predicament:

2 Kings 7:3-4 (NKJV) … “Why are we sitting here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die.”

The lepers were in a hopeless and helpless situation. They could sit there till they died – for the city was in famine – or they could go to the Syrian Camp. They got up, went to the camp, and found that God had already defeated the Syrians. They went into the camp, and ate and drank – and carried away silver and gold and clothing – all by the Grace of God. They were not blessed because of their abilities, but because of God’s Grace.

Beloved, why do you sit there until you die? God has defeated the enemy, Satan and Death. He has given us a GREAT SALVATION. Why do you sit there until you die. You are leprous with sin. You are GREAT SINNERS. Jesus is a GREAT SAVIOR. The Apostles preached:

Acts 16:31 … BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ, and YOU WILL BE SAVED, you and your household ..

Untie yourself from any anchor but Christ and His Word. Tie yourselves to Him. Trust fully in what He has said. Jesus is able.

Jesus is not only ABLE to Save, He is AVAILABLE to Save.

Jesus did not come to this earth to save those who believe themselves righteous, but SINNERS. As “There are NONE RIGHTEOUS, no, NOT ONE” and “ALL have sinned, and FALL SHORT of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10, 23) God makes salvation available to all. But Beloved, YOU MUST CONFESS YOURSELF A SINNER (1 John 1:9). Confessing yourself a sinner, YOU MUST REPENT. You cannot be saved if your faith is tied to a godless anchor. As the Apostle Paul preached in Athens at the altar of the unknown god:

Acts 17:29-31 … (ESV) we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

God is ABLE to save a person. Salvation is AVAILABLE to whosoever will. But God commands that we “repent”, knowing that there is a judgment day coming. No one will escape that judgment day if they neglect this GREAT SALVATION offered through Jesus Christ. God hates sin. But He has covered sin by the Blood of Christ. He offers complete salvation by the resurrection of Christ. He offers continuing salvation through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

The Unanswerable Question

Hebrews 2:3-4 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; 4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

There will come a day when we will all stand before God. We will give an account for our lives. When you stand before Him, and have neglected this Great Salvation offered in Christ, what will you say? A certain Welsh minister closed with this:

“Friends, I have a question to ask. I cannot answer it. You cannot answer it. If an angel from heaven were here, he could not answer it. And if a devil from hell was here, he could not answer it. The question is this?

How shall we escape is we neglect so great salvation?”

There is no escape but Christ. There is no anchor but Christ. There is no Way to live but Christ. The parameters to get into Heaven is PERFECTION. We ourselves are imperfect, but Jesus is perfect. We will all be judged before God one day. If we are imperfect, we will go to hell. But God has given us GREAT SINNERS a GREAT SALVATION in Christ. When we repent, and give our lives to Him, He stands in our place of judgment. There is no escape from damnation apart from faith in Christ Jesus. Then from the point of salvation:

TRUTH is what God says is true.
SIN is what God says is sin.
FAMILY is whatever God says is family.
SALVATION is whatever God says salvation is.
HEAVEN is whatever God says Heaven is.
HELL is whatever God says hell is.
GOD is the sole Definer and Determiner of all truth.
GOD is the highest Arbitrator of all truth.
GOD is the Judge of all that is true and what is not true.
And GOD will judge us by our relationship to JESUS CHRIST.
(taken from a sermon by Dr. Steven J. Lawson)

May God move on your hearts today. Do not sit there until you die. Choose to give yourselves to Jesus Christ by faith, and trust in Him for both temporal and eternal life. Holy Spirit, make it so. Amen and Amen.