Hebrews 2:1-4
Well, we are starting the second chapter of Hebrews, so you’ll want to turn there in your Bibles tonight. And when we were last in the text, we were tracking with the author’s argument that the son is superior to the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. After saying that in Hebrews 1:4, he brings forward evidence of that from Scripture, Old Testament proof texts. He roots his argument in Scripture and then he defends his premise that his name is above all names.
And we saw in that section from chapter 1, verse 5 through verse 14, several evidences of the son having a name superior to the angels. His name is above all names as the begotten son, verse 5, as the preeminent one, verse 6, as the anointed king in verses 7 to 9, as the eternal Lord in verses 10 to 12, and then as the exalted savior, verses 13 to 14.
So we come to chapter 2; the author has completed his interlude, kind of a parenthetical set of arguments or proof texts to prove his point. And the author, remember this author is the pastor of these original readers of this letter and the author returns to his main point. His main point, which he left back in Hebrews 1:4, and he begins to press the implications of that point to their consciences.
This idea of pressing implications to the conscience, I just want to raise to your memory for those of you who’ve been tracking with us from the beginning and going through the introductory material. Anybody remember the genre of Hebrews? Hebrews 13:22, he calls it a brief word of exhortation. The genre is it’s a sermon. It’s a brief word of exhortation.
That’s how the author, that’s how he refers to what he has written in Hebrews 13:22. And so here begins the first exhortation section in Hebrews, and this is the first of eight exhortations throughout 13 chapters of Hebrews. There’s a good chunk of Hebrews that’s exhortative, and we’ll see, this is really admonition in this section. So follow along.
Let’s go back to the very beginning, starting in chapter 1, verse 1, and we’ll read through chapter 2, verse 4. “God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days spoke to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power; who, having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.”
Now here’s a series of proof texts, evidences from the Old Testament, rooting his argument in Scripture. “For to which of the angels did He ever say, ‘YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU’? And again, ‘I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME’? And when He again brings the firstborn into the world,
“he says, ‘AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.’ And of the angels He says, ‘WHO MAKES HIS ANGELS WINDS, AND HIS MINISTERS FLAMING FIRE.’ But of the Son, He says, ‘YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE SCEPTER OF UPRIGHTNESS IS THE SCEPTER OF YOUR KINGDOM. YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFOR GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS.’
“And, ‘YOU, LORD, IN THE BEGINNING FOUNDED THE EARTH, AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS; THEY WILL PERISH, BUT YOU REMAIN; AND THEY ALL WILL WEAR OUT LIKE A GARMENT, AND LIKE A MANTLE YOU WILL ROLL THEM UP; THEY WILL ALSO BE CHANGED. BUT YOU ARE THE SAME, AND YOUR YEARS WILL NOT COME TO AN END.’ But to which of the angels has He ever said, ‘SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES AS A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET’?
“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the words spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every trespass and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
“That salvation, first spoken by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.”
The point is pretty plain here. The pastor is speaking very clearly here to his people, very straightforwardly. And here’s the point: He says because of who Jesus is, “we must pay much closer attention to what we’ve heard.” That is a clear, unmistakable point. And So what we’re going to do is organize our thoughts around not just making that point and saying the same thing that the author’s saying.
What we’re going to do is ask, how it is that we can pay much closer attention. How do we get there? If we’re supposed to pay much closer attention, how do we do that? So we want to make this practical tonight, and we want to frame our points that way. So write down; I’ve got three points tonight.
So here’s the first one. Number one: Heed what you read. Heed what you read. “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away.” Ok, so he begins with “for this reason.” For what reason? Well, we just read through that, right? And you all know the answer to this.
“We must pay much closer attention for this reason,” for the reason that Christ is superior, his salvation is superior, his revelation is superior to everything that they had grown up with, everything that they had read in the Old Testament.
All of this is being revealed as fulfilled in Christ, fulfilled through the preaching of the apostles. And so for this reason that Christ is a superior mediator, that what was pointed to in the law and the prophets is now being fulfilled in Christ, because his message is superior, a message of the fullness of grace and truth.
For that reason, they’re going to pay much closer attention. “We must pay much closer attention.” The word, must, is that little verb, dei, day, and it indicates a moral necessity. So we must, means there is a moral necessity to us paying close attention. This is not about what’s pragmatic. It’s not about what works. It’s not about what’s good for you. It’s not just a a beneficial, it is all that, but it’s a matter of moral right and wrong. And that’s what he’s laying down here in verse 1 of chapter 2.
He is indicating here by this word, must or dei. It is necessary, it’s morally necessary, it’s morally right. He’s indicating they have an accountability to this. They are accountable to pay much closer attention to what they’ve heard. This verb, to pay closer attention to, refers to an alertness and a turning of the mind to focus on something. So giving full attention to something.
I know that you all have been in the position before where you’re trying to focus on something and there’s a lot of noise and distraction. And So what do you do? If you really want to turn away from the distraction and focus, you go into another room. For some people you’ve got to go outside, for, for other people, you got to leave outside and go inside.
You just got to get away from all the distraction, all the people, all the noise, all the the clamoring, of your, for your attention and you got to silence it all so you can focus. That’s what he’s talking about here. You have to focus. You have to focus to what we have heard, which means the gospel.
The gospel and he mentioned it briefly in chapter 1, verse 3, but he elaborates this all through the letter, all through Hebrews. This gospel, he calls it here, something that they’ve heard. They heard it from those who preach the gospel to them, mentioned in verse 3 here. And it’s heard rather than read.
For us, it’s read, for them, it’s heard, because the publication of New Testament writings were not complete or widely available to them. But what they knew came by word of mouth and so for them, what they had heard. For us, it’s what we not only hear, but what we read. We have to pay closer attention to it.
And attached to the exhortation here is a word of warning. And it technically turns the exhortation into an admonition. So that’s the difference. Exhortation could be vault positive in its framing, positive in its tone. When you add the warning element to it, it turns from exhortation into admonition.
“Pay much closer attention to what we have heard.” Here’s the warning, “lest we drift away.” Lest we drift away, that’s a verb that refers to slipping from something or slipping away from something. The picture here, in that verb, is of a ship that’s adrift. It’s adrift because it’s pulled away from its moorings, or the anchor was cut away, or the anchor wasn’t even dropped at all. And so it’s flowing with the tide. It’s got no mooring. It’s got no stability.
And the picture here is of a gradual neglect and an unnoticed drift. All the sailors aboard the ship are asleep. No one’s on watch. There’s no anchor down. And so that ship just drifts off course and before they know it, they’re in the middle of the Pacific.
Philip Edgcumbe Hughes says, “the metaphor in mind here seems to be that of allowing the current to carry one away from a fixed point through is really important, through carelessness and unconcern, and instead of keeping a firm grip on the truth of failing to maintain a secure anchorage, which will keep one from drifting from the gospel.”
So, if you’re paying close attention, protects you from drift. If paying close attention protects you from drift, how do you know if you’re doing that? How do you know if you’re paying close attention? What is paying attention.
Parents, if you’ve got young kids, how do you see it in your kids, when they’re paying close attention? Go clean your room. Yeah. Yeah, I’ll do it. I’ll do it. No, I want you to go clean your room. Yeah. Yeah. How do you know that they’re paying close attention when they clean their room, right.
Oh, I didn’t hear you. Oh, I didn’t, you were you, you were using a language I didn’t understand. They come up with all kinds of reasons. This is what was spoken so often in the Old Testament, where Israel was condemned, indicted, judged, because they were told they didn’t hear.
“O hear, O Israel,” means not just hear sounds, it means heed, hear and do, hear and obey, hear and put it into practice. That is how it’s not just about looking at reference points, it’s about responding to the reference points. You got to do something about it.
It’s really important that we today heed what we read and fear what we hear.” Travis Allen
So the readers, they are evidently in danger of drifting away from what they heard. They’d become reluctant to identify publicly with other Christians. They’re reluctant to stay in regular attendance with the gathered congregation.
And as we’ve been saying, there was increasing opposition and hostility in the culture, which made it very tempting to drift, very tempting. So those were their temptations to drift.
You know, Nero on the throne, the threat of your life, loss of property, loss of goods, that’s a pretty significant temptation. We have our own temptations to drift, not as severe as Nero, an emperor who wants our blood, but we have subtle temptations, some not so subtle, but we have a lot of subtle temptations we’re facing all the time.
And so this command, this admonition, this exhortation is just as relevant today as it was when he wrote it. Using the ship at anchor versus ship adrift, word picture. How does heeding what you read protect you from drifting away with the current? It’s by looking at fixed points of eternal truth, things that do not change. And it’s by looking at these fixed reference points in Scripture, words on the page that God revealed.
These words are not just any other words. They’re not words of novels, newspapers. They’re not words of articles on the Internet. They’re words that have actual power to change you, to do something in your life, transform you, renew your mind and change you, like no other word, ever. These are God breathed words with real power to do real stuff in your life.
So by fixing your gaze on that and by letting “the word of Christ dwell in you richly,” Colossians 3:16, that’s how you avoid drifting. That’s how, what you read, if you heed what you read, by hearing it, absorbing it, reflecting on it, meditating on it, and then doing it; being a doer of the word, not just a hearer only, who deceives himself, but you’re a doer of the word, that pleases the Lord, and you change and you stay put.
Okay, a chief reason we will heed what we read is found in verse 2 and through the first part of verse 3. Which brings us to a second point, number two: Fear what you hear. Fear what you hear, starting in verse 2. “For if the Word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every trespass and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”
Just as a side note, the word, therefore unalterable, it’s bebaios, which means firm or sure or secure, and it literally is used to describe an anchor in Hebrews 6:19. So he’s kind of carrying this anchor ship adrift or ship fixed metaphor forward even into this word bebaios, unalterable. Hebrews 6:19 says, This hope we have as an anchor for the soul, a hope that’s both sure, there’s the word, sure and steadfast.
Love these nautical word pictures. This spoken word says, the word spoken, that’s the passive voice. And here it’s used this way, in this verse, and the next verse, use the passive voice. It’s the divine passive, and the unstated subject of that verb is God. It’s the word that God spoke. And so we’ve seen that God is the one speaking basically from chapter 1, in here into chapter 2, as well.
He’s the one speaking, but his speech here is speaking in the law is mediated through angels. If you go back to Exodus 19, Exodus 20, Deuteronomy chapter 5, you’re not going to find angelic mediation explicitly stated there. I’ve looked for it, wondering about this, but what is conveyed in those chapters in Exodus 19 and 20, in the giving of the law, Deuteronomy chapter 5, the recapitulation of the giving of the law.
What’s conveyed in those chapters is that God is speaking directly to Moses, and then Moses then directly speaks to the people. So the voice speaking is God’s voice, and then Moses is the mediator who stands between the people and God.
Oral tradition, though passed down through generations of the Jews, affirm the involvement of angels in the giving of the law at Sinai. And so that’s why this comes up here in Hebrews chapter 2, you know, giving a prominent place in the giving of the law to the mediation of angels.
Moses actually alludes to angelic presence and mediation in Deuteronomy 33, verse 2, as does David in Psalm 68:17. And then by the time we get to the New Testament, when Stephen is preaching before the Sanhedrin, he speaks of the angel who was speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai in verse 38 of his sermon in Acts Chapter 7 to the Sanhedrin.
In the end, he indicts the entire Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling body, as those were just like their fathers. And he says in verse 53, that you’re those who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you did not keep it. It didn’t win him any favors. In fact, it got him stoned.
So the Jews had an oral tradition that did recognize the involvement of angels in the giving of the law at Sinai. And they esteemed the angels, again, not just because of the glory of their being, but because of their involvement in giving the law.
And these Christian readers, too many of them, as we’ve been saying, have they come from a Jewish ethnicity. They’re raised in Jewish homes. They’re raised with Jewish backgrounds. They’re raised in synagogue. They read the Scripture. They too, esteemed angels highly, not only because of the essence of their being, but also because of their role in giving of the law.
So, do these Jews, these Jewish Christians, ethnic Jewish Christians, do they think of themselves as as safe, that they’re good to go, because of the esteem that they have for the law of God? Do they think of themselves as safe because of the esteem that they have for the angelic mediators of the Law, or even for Moses himself?
The author who is their pastor says, no, we don’t think of ourselves as safe just because we esteem the law of God, just because we esteem Moses, just because we esteem angels. We know better than that. He says in this verse, chapter 2, verse 2, the law of Moses proved to be unalterable, fixed, unchanging, and that’s evident in the whole Old Testament.
You read the stories of the Old Testament and you see Israel bashing up against the law, ignoring it, turning away from it, being stubborn, stiff necked, hard hearted, and no matter who opposes it, no matter who’s in rebellion to it, no matter who’s stubbornly resists it, they smash into the law and they’re the ones that are injured.
The law never changes; it never budges. Not only that, but what was illustrated in the case law of Scripture, they could see very clearly that “every trespass and disobedience received a just penalty.” No one’s getting away with anything. And they could see that very clearly, especially in the story of Moses leading the children of Israel through the wilderness and all those who disobeyed Moses; their bodies are strewn all through the wilderness, over 40 years.
That entire generation was put to death, millions put to death. And it’s their children who they thought would be prey if they entered in the Promised Land. They grew up, they entered the Promised Land and God gave them that land. The term in verse 2, for trespass, refers to actual transgression of written code.
So they transgressed what was clearly stated, clearly written. The next word though, very interesting. Parakoe, it’s translated here as disobedience, but it has to do with this attitude of disobedience. Really, parakoe comes from the verb, parakouo. Akouo means to hear, and so parakouo means resistance to listening, resistance to hearing. It’s a heart issue, this issue of disobedience.
So the first term about trespass or transgression is about external violation that everybody can see. You can kind of hold them to account by what they see. The second word has more to do with the heart. The heart attitude that’s at work in a heart of disobedience. Parakouo refers to an unwillingness to listen, maybe even an indifference to listening that kind of amounts to disobedience.
You see this and parents see this all the time with their kids, but you see it when someone drags their feet or you give them a clear instruction and they they play dumb. You know, they’re intentionally obtuse, pretending like you’re not clear. Yeah, I I would, I totally would have done what you said, but I, I didn’t understand. I played that game with my mom.
But when someone does that, plays dumb, obtuse, pretends like you’re not clear, you’re the problem; pretends like God’s word’s not clear, it’s the problem. All they’re doing, they’re just suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, so they can go on doing what they want to do.
That’s the issue in a heart of disobedience. It’s a blatant disregard, a passive resistance to hearing and heeding, a stubborn rebellion. And it’s really, in the end, a wicked high-handed sin. And so the pastor here is reminding his people what they already know to be true.
They were thoroughly familiar with their own Bibles, their history, their Jewish history, many instances in their history of idolatry and rebellion, not heeding God’s Word, but resisting it. And they could see for each offense, great and small, there was a just penalty.
Think about that. What examples can you think of from Old Testament history or New Testament history of how detailed God is about obedience, how fastidious he is about the details of his Word? Because I think we tend to be pretty sloppy. We just, we want God to be pleased with kind of the gist or just the general movement or even backing it up to, hey, I have a thought about obedience, be pleased.
With that illustration comes to my mind in Numbers chapter 15:32 to 36 says, “Now the sons of Israel were in the wilderness and they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.” Just picking up kindling. The fire went out of the hearth and he’s got kids to take care of; his wife has to cook. He’s, he’s got to get her done right.
“Gathering wood on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering wood brought him near to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation; they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him. And then Yahweh said to Moses, ‘The man shall surely be put to death; and all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.’ And so all the congregation brought him outside the camp, stone him to death with stones, just as Yahweh had commanded Moses.”
The holiness of God that burned at Sinai needs to kind of strike our hearts again, so that we can see him clearly. ” Travis Allen
Wow. So that’s what he means by every transgression, every disobedience had it’s just reward, it’s just penalty. To that we could add the example in Leviticus 10:1 and 2, of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, who they went to minister in the Tabernacle, and they offered strange fire before the Lord. They weren’t careful. “Fire came down from the Lord and incinerated those two. Again, wow!
2 Samuel 6:1 to 8, the case of Uzzah. Remember Uzzah? He disobeyed God when David wanted to move it to Jerusalem to be close to him. Uzzah’s there; he’s one of the Levites. He disobeyed God in the transporting of the Ark of the Covenant. Instead of carrying it as the Levites were commanded to do, he set the ark in an ox cart and had the oxen pull it around.
He’s thinking, like I think, work smarter, not harder. But when the oxen stumbled, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, and God struck him dead for his irreverence. Again, wow!
I think we take God too lightly. The pastor is saying to his congregation, to his people, do we think God’s changed now in the writing of this? Do we think God’s different now? There’s the Old Testament wrathful God, and now there’s the New Testament benign, grandfatherly God.
Is this God that we worship now less fastidious about the details of holiness? Again, go back to New Testament history in the book of Acts, Ananias and Sapphira. What do they learn? Acts 5:1 through 11, they told a tiny little white lie about how much they were going to give, not just they weren’t giving.
I think some, we need to be concerned about what we’re giving to the Lord, right? It’s an act of worship. And they tell a little white lie. They sold a piece of property and they determined among themselves to they were going to tell the church, well, we’re giving all of it, but they kept part of it. They kept some. God struck them dead, one at a time, made an example. He says, I’m the New Testament God.
The pastor’s point is this: If God is the same then and now, and he is, and if he punished every infraction in the law justly and he did, well, then how shall we escape? The word is ekpheugo. It’s kind of based on the term pheugo, which is you can hear the word fugitive. That’s where we get our word fugitive from.
A fugitive is someone who’s on the run from the law, someone who wants to escape accountability from the law, trying to avoid consequences. And he says, how shall we escape? There is no escape. And get this, it’s from drifting away from what we’ve heard, from neglecting so great a salvation.
It’s really important that we today heed what we read and fear what we hear. And I’m afraid that we tend to be pretty fickle and shallow and superficial. And I include myself in that, we. The holiness of God that burned at Sinai needs to kind of strike our hearts again, so that we can see him clearly and we can understand what kind of a God that he is, that he is no trifling God.
So if you heed what you read and if you fear what you hear, then recognizing how everything is far superior in the gospel of our salvation. Well, it brings us to a third point: Grow what you know. Middle of verse 3, starting there, that salvation first spoken by the Lord was confirmed to us by those who heard. God also testifying with them both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will.
Now, in addition to seeing the Trinity in that section right there, we’ve got the Lord, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. We’ve got God testifying, so we’ve got God the father and we have gifts of the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that cool? You get the three members of the Trinity.
But the pastor here, in this, really in this whole section, verses 1 to 4, he’s making an argument from the lesser to the greater. It’s called a, afortiori argument. He’s reasoning from the lesser to the greater. He reasons from a true premise, accountability to God’s firm, binding word in the law of Moses that is demonstrably true. That’s settled. Everybody accepts that.
And he moves from what they see is settled, demonstrable truth, and he moves to an even stronger premise, the greater salvation preached by the Lord, confirmed by the apostles, validated by God, which is cause for even greater attention. So pay close, close attention. Pay closer attention to what you’ve heard.
Again, how do we pay closer attention? Several ways we can apply what’s in this verse; by knowing, understanding the superiority. And here’s four words, if you want to write them down: by knowing and understanding the superiority of the revelation, the mediation, the confirmation, and the validation.
So the revelation, the mediation, the confirmation, the validation and then by heeding it, living by it, obeying it. First, grow your knowledge of a superior revelation. Grow your knowledge of a superior revelation. According to verse 3, what’s revealed in the law? Danger, right. Death, death for sin.
Through the law comes knowledge of sin, Romans 3:20, and the law then is a tutor to lead us to Christ, Galatians 3:24. The law couldn’t save us, but it did a great job in exposing our guilt, indicting us for our sins, our trespasses, our disobedience. It left us hopeless, helpless, pointed out our need. And then if we feel our desperation, points us to Christ, that’s the job of the law.
The superior revelation that comes in Christ is superior in the fact that it’s a fulfillment. Law preached death. The gospel preaches life. What the law couldn’t do, God did, sending his own son, the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin, he condemns sin in the flesh, Romans 8:3.
This is really worth meditating on, seeing the contrast between law and gospel in verse 2 and verse 3 and 4. There’s such a contrast there. So first, grow your knowledge of superior revelation. Second: grow your knowledge of a superior mediation. Grow your knowledge of a superior mediation.
The pastor says that salvation was first spoken by the Lord, the Lord Jesus himself. He’s not only superior to the mediator, Moses, but according to the chapter 1 verses 5 to 14 argument, the Lord Jesus is superior to the angels that he created, whom he commands, and he commands them, verse 14 says, as ministering spirits, he sends them out to render service for the sake of those who are going to inherit the salvation that Jesus won for them.
Obviously he’s superior. He’s a superior mediator. The Lord, according to Hebrews 1:3, is the one who accomplished our cleansing from sins. He is the mediator who is “the author and perfector of our faith.” He’s a perfect mediator. He is Son of God and Son of man. As Son of God, he’s able to stand before God and represent God to us, and as Son of Man, he’s able to stand before man and represent us to God. He represents both.
He’s a middle person and he does his mediation work perfectly; to grow in your knowledge of a superior revelation, a superior mediation. Third: grow in your knowledge of a superior confirmation. Confirmation. This is kind of, what if I could just borrow from what I was preaching this morning from Colossians chapter 1.
This is what we’re learning this morning about God’s provision of the Apostolic ministry of reconciliation. The apostles sent out to complete what Jesus started in his messianic work. They finished it off by completing New Testament revelation. They preached fully and completely the full revelation of God, and we have the record of it in inspired Scripture, completed Canon right here before us.
So this reconciling ministry of the Lord that he first announced preached, won, accomplished; it’s now confirmed by those who heard him, his apostles, and all those who are part of the Apostolic ministry, planting churches, the very first churches.
So first, grow in your knowledge of his superior revelation. Second, grow in your knowledge of his superior mediation. Third, grow in your knowledge of his superior confirmation, and finally, grow your knowledge of a superior validation.
Validation or you could put corroboration; that God corroborated with their word of preaching, corroborated with signs and wonders and miracles. Think about this: What’s the difference between how God validated his word at Sinai, how his power was on display then, and how he validated his word through Jesus and his apostles?
What accompanied Jesus and the apostles? Signs, wonders, various miracles, right? What did those signs and wonders and various miracles do? Were they smoke, fire, blasting trumpet, earthquakes, terrifying things, or were they something different? Miracles, feeding people, healing people, raising the dead, giving sight to blind people, giving hearing to deaf people, making the lame walk.
I mean, the power of God was restorative, healing, productive, blessing, right? The power of God at Sinai, by contrast, was terrifying. It was intended to be so, to strike fear into the hearts of sinful people, to cause them to revere God, so that, as Moses said, you need to fear God so that you will fear God, so that you won’t sin.
But the power of God that validated the gospel and the ministers of the gospel was accompanied by signs, wonders, miracles, which are wonderful and healing and blessing, building, restoring. These miracles are given by the will of God to the people of God to confirm and validate the Word of God.
So heed what you read, fear what you hear, grow what you know, that’s how you’ll learn to pay closer attention to the gospel, so that you don’t drift away from it. You have to keep on going back to study more and learn more and see it more broadly and deeply and higher than you ever have before.
And I can tell you, just after my 30 some years as a Christian, this has been my constant experience, by God’s kindness and grace, is to just keep leading me to greater understanding and depths and heights and to see the wonder of this gospel, to keep me from drifting, because I have a tendency in my heart to drift just like all of you do. Let’s pray.
Our Father, thank you so much for tonight. Thank you for the time we’ve had in your word. We thank you for the encouragement, the deep, rich encouragement that comes from hearing this exhortation, this admonition. We do pray that you would help us never to drift, that we keep on attending to the things we know to be true, keep our heads in the Scripture, our hearts fixed on Christ and coming to you daily to confess our sins, to seek your grace, to remember the gospel and, and the salvation that’s ours, and to be satisfied completely and holy in you. We pray that you’d help us to grow in that more and more each day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.