Jesus, what a friend for sinners, Jesus, lover of my soul. Friends may fail me, foes assail me, He, my Savior, makes me whole. Alleluia, what a Savior, Alleluia, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. 

Jesus, what a strength in weakness, Let me hide myself in Him. Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing, He, my strength, my victory wins. Alleluia, what a Savior, Alleluia, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. 

Jesus, what a help in sorrow, While the billows o'er me roll. Even when my heart is breaking, He, my comfort, helps my soul. Alleluia, what a Savior, Alleluia, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. 

Jesus, I do now receive Him, More than all in Him I find. He hath granted me forgiveness, I am His and He is mine. Alleluia, what a Savior, Alleluia, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. He is with me to the end. 

Thank you, Doug, for that good song. So good to have Doug singing and ministering to us. He's been practicing hard for a long time. He's the dedicated guitar student. Thanks, Doug. 

Good morning to everyone. Good to see you all this morning. A little brisk morning again here, but we're coming up on spring and the snow's melting, so that's nice. 

We're going to be looking at Hebrews chapter 2. We've spent quite a bit of time in chapter 1 over the last several weeks. And we're going to be looking at chapter 2, verses 1 to 4 today. 

As we consider the text before us in chapter 2 this morning, we notice a very important pattern in the book of Hebrews. In chapter 1, we saw intense doctrine about who Jesus is and how He's so much better than the angels. The author quoted eight Old Testament passages from the Hebrew scriptures to support the truth that Jesus, the Savior, Messiah, Son of God, who will rule and reign over the earth, is better than the angels. He's better than the mediators of the Old Covenant. 

That was the point of that first chapter: that Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, is better than angels, the mediator of the Old Covenant. In that amazing first chapter, we saw a tremendous amount of profound truth about Jesus packed into those few verses. We see that He is God. He's the express image of His person. We see that He is full and complete revelation of God in human flesh, that He's the creator of all things. In fact, nothing was made that was made without Him. 

He is the sufficient Savior, having by Himself purged our sins. He sat down at the right hand of God. He sat down because the work was finished; salvation was accomplished. God was completely, fully satisfied with His payment for the sins of the world. He showed this, He proved this, by raising Him from the dead, showing Him to be the Son of God with power. 

Jesus has, by inheritance, by His salvific work on the cross, as the God-man, obtained the most excellent name. And we saw last time that name is Son, that name is Savior, that name is King of kings and Lord of lords. And now He is sitting at the right hand of God, waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. We see several quotes in the last half of the chapter pointing to the time when Jesus will come back in judgment, set up His kingdom on this earth, and will rule and reign for a thousand years, and we will rule with Him. 

The angels will serve Him, and they will serve men as well, those who will inherit salvation. These are deep, profound truths, my friends, and they tell us who Jesus is and what He has done, the salvation He has accomplished by Himself, and how it is that we can receive His righteousness through faith in Him alone. 

Now, the thing I'd like for you to notice this morning in coming to chapter 2 is that all of this doctrine, these indicatives, these underlying truths, demand application. And in this, we see the pattern develop—a pattern that we must understand if we're to rightly divide this word of truth to properly exegete, understand, and apply this tremendous epistle to the Hebrews. 

And this is the pattern. The author spends a good deal of time, in this case all of chapter 1, teaching truth, laying a foundation, the facts about who Jesus is and what He has done, how He is better. Each of these doctrinal sections is followed by an exhortation, a call to application of this truth, and He does so in the form of warnings. 

We see this throughout the book, and it helps us to understand the author's intended audience and his intent in writing. The first of these warning passages is in our text this morning. But just to give some evidence for my assertion, let's look at the pattern as it develops throughout the book. 

In the rest of chapters 2 and 3, we see more doctrine, more truth teaching about how Jesus became a man, how He took on flesh and died in our place for the very purpose that He might save us, redeem us, and how He continually acts as our high priest, interceding for us. We see how we no longer have to fear death and we can have assurance of eternal life. 

All of this great truth is followed by the next warning passage in chapter 3. If you look at chapter 3 at verse 7 with me, please. 

Hebrews 3.7, notice he says, "Therefore, based on these truths that I just told you, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me, tried me, and saw my works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation and said, 'They always go astray in their heart and they have not known my ways.' So I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." 

The author teaches truth about Jesus, the salvation He provides, how it fulfills the old covenant pictures and shadows, how it's so much better. Then he exhorts the believers to hold fast, to continue, assures them that they have done the right thing in coming to faith in Jesus and that they should not turn back, go back to the law as they were being pressured to do by the legalistic Jews. 

More pointedly, as we'll see in our text today and all of these warning passages, he warns those who have not come to faith in Christ that they must come, that they must turn from the law and the ritual as a means to righteousness, forsake all of their own righteousness and turn to Jesus and Him alone. We don't have time here to lay out all the doctrines and warnings in the book, but I want to show you in Hebrews 6 and in 10 how the warnings get stronger and clearer as we progress through the letter. 

In chapter 6, verse 1, we see an exhortation. He says, "Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ or of the Christ, let us go on to perfection." And now listen to the warning to those who are in danger of rejecting Christ, not coming to faith, but turning back to Judaism and the temple worship. Look at verse 4. 

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to an open shame." 

Everyone's looking forward to when we get to that text, aren't you? That's a good one. 

The words of chapter 10 are even stronger if you turn over to 10.26. "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins." The idea of these warnings is that these Hebrew people who had come up to the point of faith were going to reject Christ. They were going to try another way. What the author is saying is there is no other way. 

"There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' says the Lord. And again, 'The Lord will judge His people.' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." 

It's vital that we see this pattern, that we understand the author's intended audience and purpose in writing, so that we do not become confused and try to apply scriptures to ourselves that do not apply to us, inevitably coming to the wrong conclusions. 

I say all this to prepare us for future studies and more difficult texts, to lay the groundwork for those passages in your minds and understanding, but also that we might see the context and flow and intent in our passage this morning. The first of these warning passages, the exhortations to those who have perhaps come up to the point of faith, made an intellectual assent to the truths of who Jesus is, but have not gone on to faith in Him alone, personally, for their own salvation. 

Certainly these people existed in this community of Hebrews, and certainly they exist in our community of churches today. Let's look at our text together in chapter 2, verse 1. Following all of this great doctrine in chapter 1, he says, "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. 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, 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." 

I've given you four points on your outline. First, give heed. Second, the things we have heard. Third, no escape. And fourth, we'll see God's witness. 

As we begin, we'll wrap the first two points together in verse 1. Give heed, he says, to the things we have heard. Building on the truths of chapter 1, the doctrines of Christ, he says in verse 1, "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away." We must. That's what the word says. We must. It is necessary. It’s imperative. It’s essential. Because all these things are true of Jesus. 

He is Creator. He is God. He is Messiah. These truths demand, they make necessary, that we give the more earnest heed. The word here means to hold our minds to, to pay close attention. We must hold our minds to these new covenant truths about Jesus. 

This is the exhortation to those who are in danger of sliding back into the first covenant, into the temple ritual. We read later in chapter 10 at verse 25 that some of these Hebrew people who had been attracted to the claims of Christ, who were involved in fellowship with the church and true believers, had begun under persecution from the legalistic Jews to forsake the assembling together of themselves. They'd stopped coming to church and were considering going back to the temple worship, the old covenant. 

This was the danger. This was the threat that the author of Hebrews is concerned with: that they would not give earnest heed to the truths concerning the new covenant and Jesus Christ, but let them slip on by. This is an interesting illustration he uses here; he employs nautical terms. 

The word translated, "lest we drift away," speaks of drifting by a safe harbor. It is instructive because it is passive. In other words, there is a current, there is a push, there is a flow carrying us along in this world. We could think of this illustration as a current or a wind pushing us. 

When I guided out of Black River Harbor on my charter boat, there were many times when this illustration came to life for me. The Big Lake often exerts its power and force. I remember two distinct times when I was eager to pay attention, to give the more earnest heed to the opening of that harbor, to give my mind and actions fully to entering the safety of that harbor. 

Once was on the 4th of July; I had some people out on the boat, and it was a beautiful, sunny, pleasant day. After a while out fishing, a pretty good northeast wind came up. It was a little uncomfortable, rough at first, but not a real problem. But the wind kept gaining strength and the waves kept getting bigger and bigger. 

We were to the west of the harbor a mile or two fighting back into the waves, and all of a sudden my big motor quit steering. The steering cable had broken, and I had no way to steer. I fired up my 10-horse trolling motor and began to guide that boat slowly into those big waves. The waves increased to about five to six footers, and they began to crash over the bow of the boat and run down the gunnels into the drains in the back of the floor.

I became more than a little concerned because my little 10-horse motor with that big boat was barely making progress against the waves. I kept looking to the harbor, to the opening, to the break wall, and it didn't seem like we were making much headway. But we slowly kept at it, giving our full attention to the situation at hand and working our way toward safety. 

I remember the lady on the boat with us asked, "Are we going to be okay?" I reassured her, but I thought to myself, if one more thing goes wrong, we're going to be on the rocks in a big hurry. We made it to the harbor and everything was fine, and I was thankful. 

Another time we were fishing about five miles to the west of the harbor, and a thick fog came in. It was calm as glass, but I couldn't even see my planer boards 50 feet from the boat. We were catching fish like crazy, and the guys were happy, but I was as nervous as could be because I had no idea where I was. 

We used the GPS, and we worked our way slowly back to the harbor, arduously making our way, looking, straining, giving our attention to the break wall, trying to see the rocks. I remember when we finally broke through the fog and could see the rocks, I narrowly missed slamming into the harbor wall and just had to steer around the rocks and make it into the opening. 

Those situations, those circumstances had my full attention, my friends. My mind was set on one thing: guiding my boat into the safety of that harbor. The warning here is that there are forces in this world. There is a current, there is a flow pushing man along. There is a fog of lies and error enveloping the man and Adam. 

Now the flow in the lives of these Hebrews was the traditions, the culture, the pressure being applied by the legalistic Jews to go back to all that they knew, the temple worship, to all that they'd known all of their lives, the norm, the accepted way. But the exhortation is to not go with the flow, not let yourself slip by the harbor of grace, the safety and assurance through faith in Christ, but to give your full attention to the new covenant truths, to Jesus, and to leave the tempestuous waves and come into the harbor of salvation through faith in Him. 

The world is pushing the man and Adam right along, conforming him, molding him, keeping him from the truth. It takes a holding fast. It takes a giving of full attention to the gospel, to the truth, to come to faith in Him. Romans 10.17 says that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God, literally a message about Jesus Christ. 

So this is the exhortation: give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard. Next we see the warning: no escape. If we do not believe Jesus, focus our minds and hearts on Him and the truth of who He is and what He has done. If we do not believe Him, if we do not receive His righteousness by faith, there is no escape from judgment. 

Look at verse 2. "For if the word spoken through angels," we learned last week that's the old covenant law given at Sinai, "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, 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." 

Here's the salient point of our message, my brothers and sisters: it is in its essence a warning. After showing that Jesus is greater than the revelation of the Old Testament, greater than the prophets, greater than the angels who gave the law, here we have the application. He draws on their clear knowledge of the old covenant and the judgment of God. 

The word if in verse 2 does not imply doubt but rather it's a settled condition in the Greek; it could be translated "since" or "thus being the case," since the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward. 

The Jews knew full well that to transgress the law of Moses was to risk judgment. If you broke the law, you suffered the consequences. We see this in quite dramatic ways throughout the Old Testament. He argues here from the lesser to the greater. He says if the things were this way in the old covenant, the lesser covenant, the one given by angels, the one spoken by the prophets of old, the inferior covenant to the new, which was mediated by Jesus, revealed through the Son of God, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? 

If we just go with the flow, go with the norm, let the world push us along and slip by the harbor of grace. The warning, the message here is that apart from faith in Jesus Christ, there is no escape from the wrath and judgment of God for our sins. 

What an important warning this is, particularly for the Hebrews of this time, of this letter, but also for us in our world. We live in an age of tolerance where all things are considered equally valid. The greatest sin of our day is intolerance; it's exclusivity; it's absolute truth. This is the very message of the gospel. 

Certainly, the gospel of Jesus Christ is inclusive in that it is available to every man, to anyone who will believe, but it is exclusive in the sense that it is the only way to salvation. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." In Acts 4.12, Peter said, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." 

Jesus is the only way. Jesus is God's final word. He speaks to us in this new covenant in these last days only by His Son. Jesus is the full revelation of God. He's the only Savior, the only way to salvation, and we see that the author gives us three proofs here, supports for how we can know that the gospel message in Christ is the only message from God. 

Look at verse 3 again, please. "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, and God also bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will?" 

At first we see this truth first began to be spoken by our Lord. The new covenant truths were first spoken by the Lord, revealed by Him. Think about that monumental moment at the Last Supper when Jesus raised the wine and He said, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood which was shed for you." 

Jesus was the first to articulate these things, to teach of them, to make clear the gospel truth that salvation was only through Him in particular, through Jesus, through His death, burial, and resurrection. The old covenant saints looked forward in faith to the sacrifice that God would provide, but Jesus made clear that He was that Lamb of God, He was the only way to life, and now salvation could only come by faith in Him. 

In John 5.24, Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." 

In John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, that he must be born again. He must experience new birth, but how? Verse 14 says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." 

Then those wonderful verses beginning in verse 16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." 

Listen to the clarity of verse 18, "He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." 

That's black ink on white paper, man, that's clear. You either believe Jesus and you're saved; you either receive Him by faith, or you don't. 

Paul makes clear in the book of Galatians to add anything to that faith, any work or rite or ritual, is to destroy the gospel. The one who the author just taught as God, Creator, Savior, King in God's full revelation in the New Covenant, this one, the Lord Jesus Christ, He Himself was the first to tell us of these things. 

And that's one reason why we should give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard. Next he says, "...and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him." 

It seems that this Hebrew community must have been some distance from Jerusalem and the ministry travels of Christ; it doesn't appear that He had individually taught these people. But the things that Jesus taught were confirmed to them by those who had heard Jesus, likely by some of the apostles. They were witnesses who had heard Jesus, been with Jesus, who came to this community and preached the gospel, proclaimed the truth about Jesus, about the New Covenant, and they were God's witnesses, carrying the message that had been given by our Lord, that they had been commissioned to go out and to preach and teach that men might believe and be saved. 

So we see that the Lord first spoke these truths, and then those who had heard Jesus, who had been with Jesus, went out and spread this good news to the ends of the earth as witnesses, as ambassadors for Christ. 

The final witness, the testimony given, is by God the Father Himself. Look at verse 4; this is an amazing verse. God also bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will. 

In the time of the apostles, in the ministry recorded in the book of Acts, we see that God bore witness; He gave testimony to His men that the message that they preached was from Him, that it was truth, that it was indeed to be given the more earnest heed. And He did this through signs and wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

We see this all the way through the book of Acts: Peter's mere shadow passing over people healed them; the disciples cast out demons, healed the sick, raised the dead. Verse 4 tells us the express purpose for these things is that it was God's witness that these men spoke His truth message. 

In Mark 16.20, it says, "They went out and preached everywhere," this is Jesus giving them the Great Commission, "and they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs." The entire purpose of signs and wonders was to confirm the word which they preached as true, as a witness to unbelievers. 

This was the purpose of some of these gifts of the Spirit as well. We see in Acts 2 that when the apostles spoke, preached, each man heard them in his own language. God gave them the gift of tongues, speaking in unknown languages in order to confirm His message which He sent these men out to preach. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14 that tongues are a sign for unbelievers. 

So this is an important verse, because it shows us that God witnessed by His power through signs and wonders that the message about Jesus is true. This is important to the context of the message here in Hebrews 1 and 2, and the audience to which he writes. 

But this is also an important verse because it helps us to understand the time and the purpose of signs and wonders and certain gifts of the Holy Spirit, their intent and their scope. Paul instructs the believers later in his ministry to search the Scriptures to see if what men say is true. He instructs them to judge a man by his message in that epistle to the Galatians, the gospel that he preaches. 

Once the doctrine of the apostles was recorded, written down, and distributed, we had what Peter calls a much more sure word—God's word to evaluate what is true and what is false. 

We have the completed word of God for this very purpose. We do not need signs and wonders anymore, and in fact, in 1 Thessalonians, it says that signs and wonders will in these last days be indicative of the works of Satan and not of God deceiving men. 

So the Hebrews should give the more earnest heed to the things they had heard, because these things were first taught by Jesus. They were confirmed by the apostles. They were witnessed as true by the mighty works of God the Father. 

These are powerful arguments supporting a powerful warning for those who were considering going back to the law, to ritual, to the old covenant and temple worship, rather than going on to Christ. 

So what application can we take from this passage as we close? Well, we must be very careful in understanding that this is a warning passage written to these specific Hebrew people in particular circumstances in the first century. So in one sense, there is no application for us here, and I think that's important to understand. 

But there is an important principle taught that still applies for us today. There are many who are sitting in Bible-preaching churches who hear the clear gospel repeatedly, who maybe have been in church for years, yet they're still on the fence concerning their personal relationship with Jesus. They still have not gone on to faith in Christ, and certainly, this warning would apply to anyone in that situation. 

I would also like to risk making a broader application of at least the principle here in the exhortation to give them more earnest heed to the things we have heard. It strikes me that it is commonplace for us as believers in Jesus Christ to become complacent, perhaps apathetic, concerning the things of Christ, the things we have heard. 

We've been studying Philippians 3 in our Thursday night Bible study, and I'd just like for you to turn over to that passage with me, Philippians 3 at verse 8. Paul's been giving his testimony of sorts here and warning about the legalistic Jews, what he calls dogs and evil workers, the mutilation. 

He's talking about how we as believers have no confidence in the flesh. Verse 8, "'Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.'" 

Paul gives us a great example here of what it means for a believer to give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard. He's talking directly about the new covenant truths, the salvation that Jesus provides, and the meaning of His words. 

The desire of His heart is that His outward actions, His life on this earth, His testimony before men would be one of being in Christ, would be in conformity with the truth of who He already is inwardly in Christ. He wants His outward life and testimony to match the reality of regeneration that Jesus performed through salvation in Him. 

He expresses the truth to us that this takes focus. This takes a pressing toward the goal, a singular passion and agonizing over the truth, the doctrine of Christ, the things we have heard. 

There's a battle in the Christian life, my friends, but we must fight the battle at the right point. We must understand how it is that God intends to produce Christ's likeness in our lives. 

We must be striving, as Paul says, to know Him and the power of His resurrection in our lives. We must understand the new covenant mystery revealed, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Him, that He has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. 

And now it's our choice; it's our privilege to set our minds, to hold our minds and our hearts on Him, to know Him, to seek Him through the Word that reveals to us who He is and what He has done, to renew our minds and to abide in Him by faith one day at a time as He lives His life out through us. 

In this sense, we cannot go back to the old either. We cannot turn to our own power, to our own righteousness, to the works of the law or religious rituals for sanctification. Rather, we must know the truths of salvation in Jesus Christ in this new covenant time of regeneration, of death to sin, of death to the law, of union with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection, of new life, of His life in us one day at a time by faith. 

Paul summarized it so beautifully in Galatians 2.20 when he said, "I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." 

The new covenant truths, the truth of salvation in Christ, are vital for us to understand, to believe, and to apply. We do this, my friends, by giving the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, to the words that God has written in this book, revealing Himself to us. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank You for continuing to teach us. We thank You for guiding us into all truth, and we thank You for this salvation that You provided through Jesus Christ. We just pray for any who have not come to the point of faith, who need to heed this warning that there is no escape, there is no other way, but faith in Jesus. 

Help us who do believe to be fixed on Your truth, on Your Word, to be abiding in Christ, to be remaining in Him one day at a time as a branch abiding in the vine, Lord. Help us to be agonizing, searching, seeking through the Word to know Him and to know the power of His resurrection life in us that we might be witnesses in this world for You, for Your glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.