Avoiding Spiritual Drift (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Avendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Mike Avendroth here. Don�t forget Evangelical White Lies is out.

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There is a hymn that we don�t sing very much. I don�t think I�ve ever sung this hymn.

Now, you might be in a church where you ask yourself the question, �What�s a hymn ?�

But most of my listeners probably know about hymns. Certain hymns should not be sung.

They are written by Unitarians or, you know, kind of the joyful, joyful, �We adore

The Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man.� And you sing them, and you can

Christianize them in your mind. But then you realize, �Nah, it�s not really the real thing.�

This song, though, I can guarantee that you�ve never sung.

And it�s written by Elizabeth Needham. And if you were from Nebraska, you�d say

Needham. But this is New England where we don�t go to Peabody Mass for Christian books discount.

We go to Peabody. And this Needham, Elizabeth Needham, she was buried in Massachusetts, Manchester -by -the -Sea,

Massachusetts. And she wrote this song, this hymn. And I�m going to read you the hymn and ask you the question, �Have you ever sung it ?�

And �Why don�t you sing it ?� Or �Will you ever sing it ?� I ask lots of questions.

And if you�re listening to me at 1 .5 speed, like I listen to podcasts �tisk, tisk, tisk.

What does that sound like at 1 .5 speed �tisk, tisk, tisk ?� The hymn�s name is �I

Never Knew You.� �When the King in his beauty shall come to his throne, and all around him are gathered his loved ones, his own, there be some who will knock at his fair palace door to be answered within, there is mercy no more.�

The haunting refrain �I have never known you, I have never known you,

I have never, I have never, I have never known you.� They had known whence he came, and the grace which he brought.

In their presence he healed, in their streets he had taught. They had mentioned his name, and their friendship professed.

But they never believed, for of them he confessed.

I have never known you, I have never known you, I have never, I have never, I have never known you.

Now the righteous are reigning with Abraham there, but for these is appointed an endless despair.

It is vain that they call. He once knocked at their gate, but they welcomed him not, so now this is their fate.

I have never known you, I have never known you, I have never, I have never, I have never known you.

O sinner, give heed to this story of gloom, for the hour is fast nearing that fixes your doom.

Will you still reject mercy, still harden your heart? Oh, then what will you do as the king cries, �Depart,

I have never known you, I have never known you, I have never, I have never,

I have never known you ?� We don't sing that song today, do we?

We never sing that hymn. Why? Why don't we sing that hymn?

Is it because it contains heresy? Something is wrong about the

Trinity? There's a truth that's cloaked? There's an error that's given?

We don't sing that in churches today, and if you ask the question why, to ask the question is to answer it.

The reason we don't sing it, I don't know if it has a good tune, maybe you say well a tune isn't good. It's because it gives, it lays forth, it yields, it manifests an uncomfortable truth, very uncomfortable, and as uncomfortable as the song is, it echoes a very biblical truth, and that truth is what we're going to talk about today at No Compromise Radio and on No Compromise Radio.

How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? That is Hebrews 2.

The question only has one right answer, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

I could ask you the question, do you really believe Jesus? Do you believe in Jesus?

Do you believe, to use King James language in Acts 16 .31, do you believe unto the Lord Jesus?

Is your belief real? Is your belief a saving belief? Do you really believe?

Now Hebrews 2 .1 -4 offers the first warning passage in the book of Hebrews.

There are lots of warning passages in this sermon. Hebrews 13 .22

talks about this as an exhortation. It's a sermon, and this writer, this author, this preacher, because it was a preached sermon, knows how deceiving the world is, the heart is, and Satan is.

Isn't this the horror of horrors where people think they're going to heaven and then they don't?

I mean, you can even be deceived about the possibility of being deceived. I'm not deceived.

I don't get deceived. Deceived me, moi? Jesus discussed things like this.

Paul discussed things like this, and now here the author of Hebrews teaches us about what could be potential disasters, the disaster of all disasters.

You want to make sure you're a real believer, that you believe in the right object of your faith, and that you trust in the

Lord Jesus Christ. You can profess and not possess, as we say in Christian vernacular.

In the Bible, we see there are false gods, Exodus 20. There are false prophets,

Matthew 7. There are false Christs, Matthew 24. There's another

Jesus, 2 Corinthians 11. There's another gospel, Galatians 1.

There are false brethren, 2 Corinthians 11. False teachers, 2

Peter 2. And false apostles, 2 Corinthians 11. And there's a false faith.

There's no faith, and there's a false faith, and both are doomed.

I read some time ago that 500 ,000 Americans, I'm sure there are more now, have counterfeit diplomas or credentials.

I wonder if you, the listener, have proper diplomas with right credentials, or you have a fake spiritual diploma.

Do you have knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you assent to the truths found in the Bible about Jesus, and are you trusting in the

Lord Jesus Christ? That's the issue. You can't trust your heart, right, because it's desperately sick and deceitful above all else.

You can't trust what the world is going to say. You need to go back to the truths of Scripture and ask yourself the question, do

I really believe? John 2, it says, many believed in his name, but Jesus did not commit himself to them.

In other words, there's a faith that doesn't save. John 12, many believed on him, but because of the

Pharisees, they did not confess him. Luke 8, these have no root, which for a while believe.

You can be close to Christianity and still not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Luther, he's teaching

Psalms, Romans, Galatians, and he knew he wasn't a believer.

He didn't understand, even though he was orthodox in his belief about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Abraham Kuyper was converted, according to one writer, when a lady at his church thought that he wasn't a

Christian, and then she evangelized him. The book of Hebrews very, very soberly yield this warning passage, the first of many warning passages in Hebrews 2.

Remember the big context of Hebrews. There's a great high priest, and in every chapter, there's something to be said about Jesus as the high priest, if not called the high priest, which most chapters he's called that.

In chapter 1, he makes purification for sins and sets down. That's priestly language, and so you have priestly language, or he's designated as the high priest in every single chapter.

That's what this book is about. But the writer knows that truth matters. Theology is important, and he punctuates with warnings throughout the book that talks about Jesus as the high priest.

Are you really believing in this high priest? Do you recognize how superior he, in fact, is?

In Hebrews, in chapter 2, verses 1 to 4, it gives a little imperative and then a purpose clause and then an explanation.

That's the grammatical outline. But maybe I could use a homiletical outline, a preaching outline that could be used to help you think through the passage.

How I would preach this—as a matter of fact, I'm going to preach this Sunday. This is the trial. This is the trial right here.

Whatever I think doesn't work here, air quotes, that I won't use on Sunday.

How to avoid spiritual drift, because that is what he's talking about is drifting, floating right on by.

Spiritual drift. You might call it backsliding, not really a technical term, but we get it.

And this spiritual drift is you're drifting away, and then you don't believe. You don't have the right faith.

It's believing that Jesus is the high priest. How to avoid spiritual drift.

And what he says, number one, how to avoid, is pay closer attention to Jesus and to the teaching about him.

In the context of angels and how great angels are, here Jesus is better.

He's more superior, and we're to be mindful of him and give our attention to him, to not be indifferent, to not be inattentive.

This if you're a mature Christian, this if you're an immature Christian, and this is if you aren't believing.

This is all good advice. Pay attention to Jesus, Hebrews 2 .1. Therefore, we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

Drifting. You've got a piece of food in your throat, and it goes down the wrong pipe.

That would be the word drift. You have an object that goes one way, and it's supposed to go another way.

That would be drift. You have a cold day outside, and your ring slips off.

That would be drift. Those are all the Greek words for drift. But this particular one, it's got the nautical idea.

I think that's the best way to translate it, where you're trying to go into the harbor, but you don't really do anything.

It's not like you're neglecting or automatically doing the wrong thing. It's just this, it is a neglect.

It is just like indifference, inattention. The current of the world and the current of secularism, the current of materialism, the current of hedonism just takes you by, and you just slowly go downstream, off the edge of Niagara Falls.

You might ask yourself the question, are most people in hell because they're

Satanists? They're people who are involved in voodoo, and they hate Jesus with a passion.

They think they hate Jesus. I don't think hell is really full of those people.

Oh, there's a lot of those people. But there are some people that are close to Christianity, like these listeners, like these hearers, like these readers in Hebrews.

Some were Christians, some were not Christians, and they're getting tempted to go back to Judaism, go back to their old religion, go back to what they used to do, and they don't want to come to Christ by faith alone.

The writer wants to seize them and say, this is an unnoticed drifting, and unless you look to the side of the river and see a stationary object, you're not going to even notice.

If you don't pay attention, you're going to think everything's fine, and you'll look up and you go, I'm drifting downstream pretty fast.

I'm buying all the habits and opinions and postulations and theories of the world, and I'm not believing in Jesus.

So the writer says, pay attention. He could tell them to hold fast. That has the same idea, and he uses that in chapter 3.

Hold fast the assurance that was ours at first. Chapter 10, hold fast the confession of our hope.

Pay attention. Turn your mind to something so you think about it, and when you think about it, you won't be neutral.

You won't have inaction, fatal inaction. You pay attention to something.

You put your mind on it or to it. Gouge said this, the duty here is intended as a serious, firm, and fixed settling of the mind upon that which we hear, a bowing and bending of the will to yield unto it, and applying of the heart to it, a placing of the affections upon it, and bringing the whole man into conformity thereunto.

I could say it simply, to really believe, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The solution is faith in Christ, because Jesus is the solution.

Christ crucified and resurrected. He is the solution, and that is why you see a renaissance these days of gospel preaching, of preaching

Christ Jesus. William Perkins said the heart of all preaching is to preach one

Christ by Christ to the praise of Christ, and if Jesus is the center message of the

Bible, this writer, the writer of Hebrews, preaches Christ Jesus.

I think he could be echoed by Spurgeon, who said, if I only had one more sermon to preach before I died, it would be about my

Lord Jesus Christ. And I think Spurgeon said that when we get to the end of our ministry, one of our regrets will be that we did not preach more of him.

I'm sure no minister will ever repent of having preached him too much. And the writer, in the book, is making sure people understand who

Jesus is. And in light of chapter 1 and all these great things about Jesus that we can see from what we call the

Old Testament, this therefore, in chapter 2, verse 1, referring back to what has been told to us by the writer about Jesus and what will be told in the future chapters as well, we have to say to ourselves, we got to pay attention to this.

We just cannot coast. Coasting will not do it. He says in chapter 3, consider

Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. It says in chapter 12, consider him, right, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Don't drift. You can imagine how close of attention you have to pay, how closely you have to pay attention to getting back from the moon if you're in a spaceship.

What's the trajectory? What about the sphere of influence that the moon has with a radius of about 66 ,000 kilometers?

How do I navigate the philosophy? The velocity?

Velapsirapsir. What do we call those? D -rex. I've got to get the right orbit.

What about fuel? I'm burning fuel as we go. How does that affect gravitational bodies and free return trajectories?

If we do nothing, we are just going to float on by and miss that corridor that's between 5 .2

degrees and 7 .2 degrees to get back into the earth so we don't skip off of it or overshoot it.

There's no room for drifting. You could ask yourself the question, am I drifting? Do I just kind of saunter, just walk on by?

The answer to that is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to keep believing and to look closely at the object of your faith, the

Lord Jesus. How do you avoid spiritual drift? Well, the writer goes on to say, acknowledge that the ultimate drift is unto damnation.

How do you combat drift? Well, why don't you just look over the edge?

Look over the edge of Niagara Falls. Consider the end. Consider your soul.

Consider the end for those who do not believe. And what the writer is going to talk about here in 2 .2,

mosaic law, you broke the law, you get punished. Angels brought that law, you broke that law, you got punished.

Jesus is going to come along who delivers greater revelation because of his person, his character.

And if you disobey his commands and his law and his revelation through he and his apostles, there is going to be judgment as well.

Dangerous retribution, as one writer calls it. There's a penalty. Chapter 2, verse 2 of Hebrews, for since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

God's law delivered by, communicated through angels.

Then, finally, in these last days, Hebrews 1, God speaks through his son, sons greater than angels.

If angels, what they delivered, people had to pay for those sins, do you think Jesus is just going to let people skate when now the message is not delivered through angels, but it's delivered through Jesus himself?

Make sure you pay attention to what Jesus said, because there is punishment for those who disregard what

Christ said and who do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The rub with all these drifting warning passages, rather, is they're so hard.

You say to yourself, well, once saved, always saved, perseverance of the saints, preservation by God, election,

Romans 8, 28 through 30. You have all these things that you say were never going to be lost.

Sheep can't jump out of the hand of the master, John chapter 10. You can't lose your salvation, yet this language seems awfully scary.

How can these be reconciled? What about these exhortations, these warnings? They make me feel uncomfortable.

The best way you can work through this in your mind so that you can put a good little system there, it's very simple.

Of course, the Bible teaches these warnings. Of course, the Bible teaches eternal security.

If Jesus can lose a Christian, then we've got big problems. But if you remember the audience, this is a sermon preached.

Now, we have it written. And when I preach sermons, I sometimes say beloved, but I know there's unbelievers there.

I sometimes say you need to believe, and I know there are people that already believe. If you remember that there's a mixed congregation, some believers, some unbelievers, this will be very, very easy for you to understand.

And even if I say to a believer, watch out for what happens at the very end if you don't believe, that spurs the believer on to continue.

It works for both. These admonitions are for the whole community.

And of course, real faith perseveres. But what this writer is trying to get at is if you've got a fake, deceptive, false credentialed faith, it's not going to last.

You've got to have the right object, and it's got to be a real, as Reformers would say, knowledge, assent, and trust kind of faith.

Hebrews unfolds easily. If you remember, he's preaching to some that are believers, some that are not.

And you say, well, that makes it very simple. Now I understand because pastors, when they get up to preach, there are unbelievers there, and don't they address those unbelievers?

Don't the pastors address the unbelievers? Of course. And what we'll see next time on No Compromise Radio, even in the book of Hebrews, you'll see there are believers and unbelievers.

There are two kinds of people within the congregation, fakers and real believers.

That's what we'll see. Well, my name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. You can write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Don't forget, if you want to write to me directly, you can, mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

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No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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