Church, let’s turn our attention again to the Book of Hebrews. The last time we were here we saw the author of Hebrews create this cosmic contrast between angels and the Son of God. And it was a heavy weight bout. In this corner, we had the glorious, angelic beings made to serve the God of the Universe. In the other corner, we had the Creator of Universe, Jesus Christ. In this corner, we had the ministering spirits sent out to serve humans. In the other corner, we had the author of our salvation, Jesus Christ. In this corner, we had verse 7: “Of the angels he says, ‘He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.’” In the other corner, in the Son’s corner, you had verse 6, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” And verse 8, “But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.’” And verse 13: “And to which of the angels has he ever said, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? That doesn’t sound like a fair fight, does it? That last quotation there is a quote from Psalm 110, that signature passage from the OT that is quoted repeatedly in the NT with reference to Christ.  

So this comparison between Jesus and the angels ends up being an absurd comparison. There is no comparison. Jesus is far greater, far better, far more powerful than the angelic hosts that Jesus himself created. The angels themselves think it’s ridiculous that people would try to bring Jesus down to the level of an angelic being. 

And yet, there are some, conceivably who the author of Hebrews is writing to, who are drifting towards that heretical position. What’s a pastor supposed to do when he’s got people drifting towards heresy? Well, a good pastor warns them. And that’s where we find ourselves today. This is a warning text—Hebrews 2:1-4. This is the first of several warning texts in this book. And the warning goes something like this: “You know the truth. You’ve heard the truth of the gospel. But now you are being tempted to drift away from it towards your own destruction. Don’t drift. Anchor your soul to the truth of the gospel that was delivered to you by faithful men. Because drifting leads to deconversion. And deconversion leads to retribution and the eternal compromise of your soul!” Al Mohler said once: “There are only two options in the Christian life: we can either sail forward in fidelity or we can drift backward in faithlessness. There is no such thing as standing still in the Christian life.” 

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So let’s get into this. Today’s message is entitled the “Danger of drifting.” And the first thing that we see in the text is that… 

1) Drifting happens gradually (2:1).

The author of Hebrews says in verse 1,

13 Therefore 

This is a transitional statement that is connecting the extensive argument in chapter 1 with the warning text in chapter 2. The Greek can also be translated “on account of this.” 

1 Therefore [on account of all this in chapter 1] we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, 

“What we have heard” is code here for the gospel. “What we have heard” is a reference to what the apostles have taught. In our context, we might say what we read in the Scriptures, because now we have “what was heard by the Apostles” written down as our NT. What was heard has been inscripturated. And so, we have to pay close attention also to what the Bible says. We are in danger of drifting, just like them. 

we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

That word for “drift” is the Greek word παραρρέω. If you are street-racing in a video game, drifting is a good thing. But let me be clear, this is not presented here in any way whatsoever as a good thing. Drifting (παραρρέω) is the opposite of what this author wants from us.

And that word is a rare word in the NT. It’s only used here in Hebrews. It literally means to “flow by” or “slip away.” Plato used it to describe something slipping away from your memory. Plutarch used it to describe a ring that slips off your finger. And Aristotle used it to describe a crumb going down the wrong pipe in your throat. You don’t want that to happen.

But probably what the author envisions here is a nautical term. If a boat “drifts” (παραρρέω) off course, that can be tragic. If a boat isn’t anchored offshore, it can easily drift into the shoals and capsize or be thrashed against the rocks. For a sailor, or a captain of a ship, drifting is a death sentence. And that’s the essence of what the author is communicating here. 

we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

Drifting is a casual wandering from the truth. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, “Hmm, I think I’ll reject my faith today.” No, it typically comes about through little nicks and cuts of compromise. It comes about by fostering doubt instead of feeding your faith. It comes about by negligence and laxity, not a grand sweeping gesture of unbelief. 

In probably the greatest book he ever wrote, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis said this: “And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?” Kent Hughes writes in his commentary, “I vividly remember the impressive public resolves of some of my college friends to follow Christ whatever would come. But today, though they have not disowned Christ, they have drifted far from their earlier faith. And their children have no understanding or interest in Christianity.” 

I wish, as a pastor, that I had no experience with this. I really do. I wish that I could stand before you this morning and say, “Every person that I’ve led to Christ, every person that I’ve ever baptized, every person that I’ve ever discipled has faithfully followed Christ all the way to the end.” But I can’t say that. And that used to really bother me. 

But then I read another pastor’s blog once where he said that Paul was in the same boat. Some of the people that he discipled had walked away from Christ—people like Alexander the coppersmith (1 Tim 1:18-20; 2 Tim 4:14), and others like Philetus and Hymenaeus (2 Timothy 2:15-18). And speaking of nautical terms, Paul even says of these men that they made shipwreck of their faith (1 Tim 1:18-20). That sounds like Hebrews 2:1. 

I’ve seen this as a pastor. I’ve never been part of a literal shipwreck, and I’ve never been lost on the high seas, thankfully. That would be terrifying. But I’ve seen people capsize spiritually. I’ve seen people wreck their faith, and it’s terrible. And the media loves it. The world is lining up to hear the story of another “exvangelical.” The world loves a good apostasy. It salves their guilty conscience when they see a “Christian” renounce his or her faith. 

You might say, “I don’t want that, Pastor Tony. I don’t want to be another statistic or another headline for the world’s media. How do I avoid that? How do I avoid drifting?” Well, “We avoid the danger of spiritual drift by reading, hearing, meditating on, and obeying Scripture… We avoid spiritual drift by dropping the anchor of our souls in the deep waters of the Word of God.” 

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Go ahead and write this down as #2. Drifting is gradual, and also… 

2) Drifting results in destruction (2:2-3a).

Do you remember the whole frog boiled alive in a pot story? Preachers have been working that little analogy since the beginning of time. But apparently that little chestnut is a hoax. Modern biologists say that if you slowly heat up a pot with a frog in it, the frog has enough sense to jump out of the pot. I suppose they are right. I don’t know. I’ve never conducted that experiment. 

But I think the illustration still works. Because we used to say, “Don’t be as dumb as a frog and let yourself be cooked alive by compromise.” Now we can say, “Don’t be dumber than a frog and let yourself be cooked alive by compromise. Even a frog is smart enough to jump out of a slowly heated pot.” 

Here’s what the author of Hebrews says about drifting and compromise. 

2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? 

Here, listen to the Greek of “every transgression or disobedience.” 

πᾶσα παράβασις καὶ παρακοὴ

Do you hear the repeated p-sounds there? There’s great alliteration there. Not just with the p-sounds, but also with the a-sounds, the repeated alpha vowels in those words. Again, we have an author here who combines great artistry with great theology. And even as he’s warning this congregation with his words, he does it in a way that is artful and alliterative. 

And as part of that artistry, the author uses what’s called qal wa homer argument. qal wa homer in Hebrew means “light and heavy.” Qal means “light”; wa means “and” and “homer” means “heavy.” In Latin, this is called an a fortiori argument; that is a “how much more” argument. And it goes like this: If this is true, then how much more will this be true! 

Jesus used this kind of argumentation all the time. Jesus said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him” (Matt 7:11). Jesus said also, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep!” (Matt 12:11-12). Jesus used this argument a lot in his teaching. Paul did too. 

Now here’s how the author of Hebrews uses this style of argumentation. He says, 

2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 

If this is true, which it is. Every disobedience to the OT Law was punished. Sometimes that punishment took place immediately in the wilderness as the Israelites were wandering. So if this first statement is true, which it is, then…

3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? 

Everyone with the author of Hebrews here? Are you feeling the argumentation? Here’s another way to say it. “If God punished those people who rejected he previous message, how much more will he punish those who reject the message of salvation through Jesus Christ?” Remember what was said previously in Hebrews 1. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (1:1-2). So this is building on that statement. And now the author is saying, “If people drifted from and reject that which was spoken by the prophets and were punished, how much more will God punish those who drift from and reject the salvation spoken by the Son?” 

The obvious inference from this passage is that those drifters won’t escape punishment. Those neglectors won’t escape retribution. Like I said, this is a warning text. This is the first of many times in this book where the author is saying “deconversion is stupid. Don’t you do it, church. Deconversion leads to eternal destruction. Don’t you go down that road.” 

Now here’s the question that some of you are going to ask. You’re going to say, “Tony, when did angels give a message in the OT?” 

2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable,

“What message was that? What’s that talking about?” 

Well there are several places where the law given to the people of Israel is described as given by angels. We talked about the angels last time. They are these created beings that God uses to do his bidding. Well, when Moses was given the Law in the Pentateuch, there is no mention of angels. But Moses does allude to angels later in Deuteronomy 33:2 (cf. Ps 68:17). 

Also Paul in the NT says, “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it [the Law] was put in place through angels by an intermediary” (Gal 3:19). Earlier, in the book of Acts, when Stephen is arguing with the Jewish leaders just before he is executed, he says, “This is the one [Moses] who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us” (Acts 7:38). Stephen even accuses the people who are about to assassinate him by saying, “you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it” (Acts 7:53). That was the statement that sent that group over the edge. Right after that they ground their teeth at him. So the widespread tradition at the time of the writing of Hebrews is that angels had something to do with the delivering of the Law. Angels had some role in bringing God’s Word to Moses. 

So what I think the author of Hebrews is doing here is saying, “You guys think so highly of angels. Well let’s talk angels. The angels delivered the law in the OT that the OT Israelites were punished for. If they broke the Law, they got punished. Every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution. How much more is that going to be the case, if you reject the greater-than-the-angels, savior of the world, Jesus Christ. The retribution is going to be even more pronounced and more certain that what happened previously.” 

3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

And it is a “great salvation” isn’t it? Can we just meditate on that for a second? It is a great salvation! The God of the Universe was born into our world as a baby. He suffered and died as our Savior, and he rose from the dead. And after he rose, he extends us a free offer of grace and salvation. Isn’t that a great salvation?

Tell me if you’ve heard this before, church. 

And can it be that I should gain

An interest in the Savior's blood

Died He for me, who caused His pain

For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be

That Thou, my God, should die for me? 

And what the author of Hebrews is saying is that this salvation is so great, it’s so beautiful, but if we neglect it… If we reject it… If we drift away from it… God’s retribution will be swift, and it will be just, and we won’t escape it. So don’t you de-convert, church. Don’t you go down that road. 

And the temptation to do that must have been significant. The persecution these individuals were experiencing must have been oppressive. I can only imagine. Maybe at first, they came to Christ, and they received this jolt of peace and joy and relief that God had saved them from their sins. But then after a while, they grew weary of the daily routines. Their faith became stale. Familiarity started to breed contempt. They started to pine for their old way of life, and they got tired of the constant persecution they were experiencing. And the author of Hebrews is trying to shake them out of their disillusionment. Drifting leads to destruction. Don’t go down that road. 

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And finally, write this down as #3. 

1) Drifting happens gradually (2:1).

2) Drifting results in destruction (2:2-3a).

3) Drifting defies God’s declaration (2:3b-4). 

Look at the middle of verse 3. 

It was declared at first by the Lord, 

What does that “it” refer to? Salvation, right? It’s the Greek σωτηρία which means “deliverance” or “salvation.” What are we delivered from? Destruction, right? Retribution, right? 

You know sometimes I think we make a mistake when we share the gospel with people, because we talk about salvation and getting saved, but people don’t even know why they need salvation. They don’t even know that they are lost in need of being found. We say, “Jesus is the Savior,” and people say, “Well that’s great for you. But I don’t need saving.” Well, yes you do. We all do. Jonathan Edwards was right. “We are all sinners in the hands of an angry God.” And we need saving. And we can’t save ourselves. So Jesus came to do the saving. 

And Jesus likes to do the saving. In fact, it was declared at first by him. 

[Salvation] was declared at first by the Lord, 

Who’s the Lord in that verse? The Greek is κύριος. It’s Jesus, right? When did he declare it? Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28). Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, nobody comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6). Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand (John 10:11, 27-28). Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (John 11:25). 

Who said that? Jesus said that. Who declared that? Jesus declared that. Jesus said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15). And Hebrews 2:3 says,

[Salvation] was declared at first by the Lord [Jesus], 

And then he says in verse 3,

and it was attested to us by those who heard,

Who were “those who heard”? By the way, this is a different category from verse 1, where it says, “we have heard.” The “we have heard” in verse 1 is different from the “those who heard” in verse 3. Same Greek word, but the author is describing two different groups of people. Don’t get those mixed up. The “we who heard” in verse 1 are those who have heard the gospel preached. The author of Hebrews tells them to not drift from that preached gospel. But the “those who heard” in verse 3 are the apostles who first heard the message of Jesus. They were entrusted with the gospel by Jesus and sent out as emissaries to build the church. They attested the truth of the gospel. They attested to the words that Jesus actually spoke. They were his first witnesses. 

And beyond that, God bore witness himself. Look at verse 4. 

4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. 

When you look at the book of Acts, what do you see? Signs, wonders, and miracles. Even in the days of Jesus, what do you see? Signs, wonders, and various miracles. These are witnesses to the gospel. These are gifts even given by the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will, not our will. We don’t say, “Gimmee, Gimmee, gimmee!” The Holy Spirit says instead, “Here you go!” 

And the thing about a sign is that it points to something. The sign is a signal. It’s a means to an end, not an end in itself. People make that mistake all the time with signs, wonders, and miracles. They fall in love with the signs and miracles and forget that these signs are meant to point towards something. And the signs in the NT were meant to point towards Jesus. 

Let me give you an example. If you were driving to South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore, and you see a sign that says “Mt. Rushmore,” 250 miles. Nobody gets out of the car and takes a picture of the sign and then drives back home. “Did you see Mt. Rushmore? Nope, we saw something even better. The sign for Mt. Rushmore. It was amazing. Want to see a picture?”   

In the NT world, signs and wonders are pointers to Christ. They are given by the Holy Spirit and used by the church to grab people’s attention, authenticate the message of the gospel, and then direct people to Jesus as the savior. What good is it to be healed from a disease, and yet still have a soul sickness that will send you to hell for eternity? What good is it to be saved physically and yet be unsaved spiritually? 

Here, let me let you in on a secret. Every single person that got miraculously healed in the NT, every single one of them, eventually died. None of them escaped death. Even Lazarus who got raised from the dead, had to die again. Poor guy. He had to die twice. The reason Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead wasn’t so that he would escape death a second time. He raised Lazarus from the dead to show people that he had authority over death and could raise them to new life after his death. He told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25) in that passage of Scripture just before he raised Jesus from the dead. 

I say this because this is important. People get all wrapped up in signs. Signs are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. And the Lord uses signs to bear witness to salvation in Jesus Christ. That’s what the author of Hebrews is saying. 

Follow the line of reasoning in verses 3-4. 

while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles 

Bore witness to what? Bore witness to the “salvation” in verse 3 that Christ supplies. That the salvation that the author of Hebrews is desperately telling his listeners to not drift away from. Do you see what he’s saying? 

Now two controversial matters, and then I’ll close. Here’s one controversy. I’ll frame it as a question. “Pastor Tony, does God still use signs and wonders and various miracles in our day to bear witness to salvation like he did in the first century world?” That’s one controversy I want to deal with. Here’s the other one. People might ask it this way, “Pastor Tony, if the author of Hebrews is warning people to not drift from their faith, because that might lead to destruction, does that mean that people can lose their salvation?” Anyone asking that question right now? 

Let me address the first one. Some people are part of what’s called the cessationist camp and say that signs, miracles, and so forth were utilized by the Lord in the first century world, but that ceased (cessation) when the NT was written and the canon was closed. I think that’s a fine argument, and there are good Christian thinkers that hold to that view. I’m more partial to what’s called the “open but cautious” camp of continuationists that see the possibility, but not the normality, of miraculous signs in our day. And I think that these signs are especially prevalent in primitive settings where the Scriptures aren’t as widespread or well-known. 

For example, George Guthrie talks about traveling to a primitive place in modern-day China where miracles are remarkably commonplace. So much so that the Chinese nationals are surprised by how prevalent they are. And yet the Chinese Christians have noticed that on the eastern seaboard of China, those miracles are way less common. And when he asked the Chinese Christians about this, they said that God will use miracles at first to get the gospel established in a new location. God pours out the miraculous to bear witness to the gospel and then as the church gets established, the extent of the miracles decreases as God bears witness through his people in the church. 

I find that incredibly insightful. That’s how I feel about signs and wonders in the North American setting. Do they happen? Yes. Does God use them? I think so. But especially in our world, people are so infatuated with the signs and so negligent towards God’s revelation in his Word, they let the tail wag the dog. 

Now let me tackle that second question. “If the author of Hebrews is warning people to not drift from their faith, because that might lead to destruction, does that mean that people can lose their salvation?” Here’s my view on that. I believe that salvation is ultimately a matter of God’s sovereign choice of election. And so, from a divine vantage point, nobody ever loses their salvation. And from a divine vantage point, the person who is saved will ultimately persevere in their faith. It’s what theologians refer to as the perseverance of the saints. 

But the problem is, we don’t have access to that divine vantage point. And we don’t know who is ultimately elect or non-elect. All we have is the fruit of someone’s conversion. And one of the things we have to deal with on this side of eternity is what Tommy Nelson calls, “professors but not possessors.” They profess faith, but they don’t possess a changed heart. Some people make a profession of faith, maybe they even get baptized. But then, for whatever reason, they start to drift. They start to wobble spiritually. And before you know it, they jettison their faith. 

The Biblical instruction that we receive concerning these individuals is to warn them. Remind them. Challenge them. In the end, they may walk away. They may shipwreck their faith, so to speak. But don’t let that happen without you challenging them. The Apostle Paul says, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Cor 13:5).

And for someone who has walked away from their faith, someone from a Reformed position like myself might say, “that person was never saved in the first place.” Someone from an Arminian position might say, “that person lost their salvation.” Both theological positions end up in the same place. They both acknowledge an unbeliever. Here’s how the Apostle John describes it, and I think he says it best. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19). 

I don’t know who ultimately is saved or unsaved. I don’t know the genuineness of every person’s faith in this room. I’m just here as the pastor of this church to say on behalf of God and his Word, “Don’t drift from what you’ve heard. Don’t shipwreck your faith. Hold fast to the gospel. Hold fast to Jesus Christ. Hold fast to the faith that you believe till Jesus comes back or till God calls you home, whichever comes first.”

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I’ll close with this. This is a bit technical, but I think it will benefit you. In Hebrews 2:3, the author uses a rare Greek verb ἀμελέω. It’s a word that means “neglect” or “disregard” or “ignore.” How shall we escape if we “neglect” (ἀμελέω) so great a salvation? Charles Spurgeon said once that neglect is as bad as open opposition to the gospel. 

Well that word ἀμελέω is used by Paul in 1 Timothy 4:14 (ἀμελέω) when he tells Timothy, “Do not neglect (ἀμελέω) the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.” And that rare word shows up only one time in the Gospels. It shows up in the Gospel of Matthew in one of Jesus’s parables. And it’s one of Jesus’s more sobering parables. It’s the one about the wedding Feast in Matthew 22. 

There’s this King and he gives a great wedding feast for his son. It’s a great event and he wants all of his favored subjects to participate in it. So he sends out invitations via his servants. “Come, my son is getting married. Come be part of this celebration. I’ve slaughtered the fattened calf. I’ve prepared a great feast. All is ready! Come!” But then, here was the response. “But they paid no attention [they ἀμελέω]” … They neglected, They, disregarded, they ignored the King. It’s the same word as Hebrews 2:3, “How shall we escape if we neglect (ἀμελέω) so great a salvation?” 

If you remember the rest of the parable, the King was so angry he sent off a battalion of troops to destroy them. And then he sent out his servants to the highways and byways to find anybody and everybody who wanted to come to his Son’s wedding feast, even lowly Gentiles like you and me. People who wouldn’t disregard his invitation. 

Listen, God puts up with a lot with us. He is slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness. But one thing he can’t abide is being disregarded. One thing he doesn’t forgive is being ignored. How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? Don’t ignore it. Don’t drift from it. Put your faith in Christ and receive the free gift of salvation that he offers.