The Book of Hebrews 2:1-4 So Great a Salvation

Good morning. I'd say something like good afternight, but that can be confusing. So anyway, all right, we're going to continue on our study of the book of Hebrews, the book we've taken several weeks now to introduce and then begin. One of the things we pointed out a couple times back, and we'll include it at the beginning of your handout here, Hebrews is a book that has a pattern. It has an explanation section. We've just completed that as of last Sunday. And my reason for bringing it up here is the exhortation section that corresponds to each of those. We're beginning today. That's this Hebrews 2, 1 through 4 that Brad just read for us here. So this pattern we're going to see continues throughout the book, and we'll be making note of, okay, where are we? And this nice, clean outline will help us keep oriented here.

The exhortations do come with a combination of warnings, sometimes the warnings are kind of intense, and encouragement. The book of Hebrews has that interesting combination. I've seen people call it just the warnings of Hebrews, but in fact that there is both a warning and encouragement. And the other part with the warning is the warning, while it may seem kind of blunt at times, also is well intended. And I think it's important to recognize. The author is saying some things that are at times pretty intense. but in fact the intense warnings are well intended and ultimately the author has the motive in mind and the intent in mind of restoring these people to a walk of fellowship with the Lord and then with one another as well. So that's true of this passage here today.

We're going to see both warning and encouragement, and the encouragement will always be along the lines of putting the focus on Jesus, and it'll also be along the lines of having people be mindful of the Word of God. Okay, so for this warning and encouragement combination here, We're going to see them as stunning and intense, and that's going to be true of the passage we're looking at here. The warnings and encouragement are understood also because it's written to Hebrews. They're understood from a Hebrew cultural and language background.

But one more thing we pointed out earlier, we had a supplement available the first couple of weeks. It's still available for download on the website. And that is, we pointed out, and it's going to show up here today, we pointed out that the book of Hebrews has a pattern throughout the book of making use of shipping terms, of terms that refer to shipping in some degree. And we're going to see that is true here in this morning's passage.

The warnings are, in fact, gracious, and that's an interesting thing. He's writing to the Hebrews, but he keeps using the word grace again and again. As a matter of fact, you have as a half-page slide the listings of those places in the book of Hebrews, and next week's passage will be the first of those. grace is repeatedly brought up. Isn't that interesting? He's talking to these Hebrews who are tempted to go back under the law and what's he offering instead of falling back under the law? Grace. What a surprise, right? and so he's repeatedly bringing them back to grace uh... from this the second chapter that will begin to uh... uh... next week all the way to the last chapter chapter thirteen ending it with grace be with you notice he didn't say the law be with you So grace be with you.

And so he's going to continue to underscore grace as he talks to these Hebrews going through the cycle of explanation and then exhortation. As he continues to talk to them, he's going to keep bringing them back to grace. He's going to do that on purpose. He does not want them to be slipping back under the law. And we're going to see the first warning about that even right now. The other thing to point out, and the author continues to talk to these people, even though what we have is a written book, he keeps talking about speaking, God speaking particularly.

This is a letter written to an oral culture. One of the things I found was interesting, a number of you recall having met Hassan when he was here, by the way that was coming up on three years ago, but when Hassan was here, One of the things that happened was We would get talking and I would recognize that even though Hassan was university educated He still was from an oral culture. And if you go into the villages and whatnot frequently, there's a high illiteracy rate and and the oral culture takes over. But even among those who come out of the villages into the cities and towns, still a strong oral culture. The same is true of these readers, or was true of the readers of this book of Hebrews.

They were very much an oral culture, and so rather than having God had written, God spoke. God spoke through his prophets. God spoke through his son. God spoke. And so this is an oral culture. We see it repeatedly coming up and even in this passage here. So from the first verses of the book of Hebrews to the last verses, even in today's passage, we're going to see repeated reference to God's word in spoken form. And all of scripture supports this.

What do I mean by that? When God created Everything in six days. How did he do it and? God said let there be light and he continued that pattern every single day of the creation God spoke it into existence Okay, he spoke it into existence God spoke through Moses God spoke to Moses right and then We see this pattern showing up.

It shows up in the first couple of verses of Hebrews. It continues into this passage in chapter 2 that we're looking at here today. And we're going to see it cropping up off and on again throughout the book all the way again to the last and the thirteenth chapter. So we're going to see that pattern.

God is not one who just has something written down, but God is one who continues to speak to us. God spoke to us through his word. God spoke to us through his son. And I think that's something for us to take to heart. He's writing it to these people because, in fact, you go through the Old Testament, God spoke, God spoke, God spoke. But it's important for us to look at this. This is not just some dry, dusty book we're looking at here. This is God speaking. This is God speaking.

And the author of Hebrews underscores that point from beginning to end. And we're going to see that pattern not just today, but we saw it from the very first verses, we're going to see it to the very last verses. He starts off for this reason. And for what reason? All the reasons laid out in the first chapter. All those reasons. Chapter 1. God spoke through the prophets. God spoke through His Son. The Son has a unique position and relationship to the Father unlike any of the angels. Which of the angels? Ask twice. Which of the angels has this position like the Son? None. None. He is unique.

For all these reasons, okay, summarized as for this reason, that's what he's talking about here. So everything we saw in chapter one. And one of the things we pointed out previously, some of the slide two weeks ago, God's revelations to mankind, certainly nature, ever hear talk to somebody, they say, Oh, I see all the God I want in nature. Well, guess what?

God has revealed himself in nature, but that's not enough. He has spoken especially and more explicitly in His Word and in His Son. God's providence is also a way God reveals Himself and in conscience. Those are three ways that God has revealed Himself, but those are general revelations.

They're not specific. You don't know from conscience that Christ died for your sins. You don't know from looking at nature that you desperately need a Savior. One of the things that's abundantly clear, and the book of Hebrews continues it, God spoke in the scriptures. God spoke through His Son.

So from Hebrews 1.4 to 1.14, the Son is shown to be unlike the angels in some very substantial ways. And we went through that and saw the several different ways that God's Son is unique and unlike any angel or all of them put together.

So this This letter was necessary to cause the readers to listen and to see and to think because they had lost sight of who Christ was and is. Ever get distracted? In the course of life, getting distracted, sometimes it's just sort of a nuisance, an annoying. Other times it can be very dangerous. One of my pet peeves is I'll be looking at some TV show or movie and they'll show the driver and you know this whole thing is canned.

He's going like this and for about 15 seconds he's looking at the person next to him and I'm saying, look at the road! The distraction is terrible. What the author of Hebrews is getting at is, you guys have a spiritual distraction, and it's really serious. We can get distracted from beholding the Lord. We can get distracted from keeping our eyes on Christ, and it's a whole lot worse than the guy who's looking to the side instead of in front of him while he's driving. That can be real serious. What he says here is, in verse 1, much closer attention to what we've heard.

The readers had heard the truth about Christ. Later in this book, not too many chapters ahead, we were told that they all ought to be teachers by now. They've had plenty of good, rich, biblical content taught to them. Given everything that they've heard, they ought to be teachers by now, but of course they're not.

And you know what the problem is? Distracted. That's the problem. They were distracted. We pointed out that the book of Hebrews uses a number of shipping terms. This verse is among those passages. There are two shipping terms here we're going to look at here. The much closer attention term was a term used for bringing a ship to land. So you can imagine, okay, here's the ship. This is in an area where there's no GPS units, right? Nobody's got a GPS. You don't even have a cell phone with an app on it, okay? None of that, right? But what you do is you say, okay, over there is where I see land and that harbor, I recognize it. That's, you know, whatever the harbor is. This is Ephesus or Smyrna or something of that sort, right? But bringing the ship to land, that's this term that he uses here. Paying closer attention is being brought into the harbor towards land.

So after bringing the ship to land, it would be held there by either an anchor or tying ropes to moorings on a pier, sometimes both. Either they'd have an anchor once you're in the harbor, because you're not just to let the ship just kind of float around, right? It'll drift, and that's what he's warning against. So we want to be careful now that we've brought into the harbor that we don't drift away.

And so what they would have is either a situation like this, where the ship would not be tied, but they would use an anchor right near the place where they would have the unloading. Or what we have here is they show a picture of tying the ship off to some moorings. Here's a pier and here's some kind of a post or a pile that's been put there and they would tie the ship off. So they would have one or the other or both sometimes so that the ship would stay there. So what's the hazard if the ship is not anchored or tied off? You can imagine, okay, we're coming into port here. and we're just going to let the ship just sort of sit there.

Well, everybody's going to head off and stay at some place and go to bed, and they're going to come out the next morning, and what's going to happen? Where's our ship? And guess what? Nobody's going to know, right? Because nobody was on it, and everybody else was in port, and they'll say, I don't know. My ship's still here. What's wrong with yours? They would use anchors sometimes like this. This is an instance. One is here is a rock with a groove around it, and they would then tie around the rock.

They would put a hole in them, and here is an example of the anchors with holes in them, the larger mass. And so one way or another, they would have different kinds of anchors, but boy, you'd better be anchored. That's the term that's used for, you know, so that we don't drift away, this anchor term.

There was also something more like our present day anchors, only it was a combination of metal and wood. Here's an instance of it. Even the Phoenicians, centuries before the New Testament times, had anchors like this. The Greeks had them, and we know that the Romans also had some like this. Nonetheless, no matter what kind of an anchor, that's the word that's used here.

They're anchors so that we don't drift away, right? After bringing the ship to land, it would be held there by either an anchor or tying rope to moorings and a pier to drift away. It was a term for a ship being pulled away and then lost at sea. By the way, you think of the times, again, no GPS units, right? Nobody on board with a radio to call in and say, hey, I'm over here, right? So if your ship drifted out to sea, your chances of getting that ship back Not so good. And that's why we have a picture here of a shipwreck. Likely, if you were foolish enough not to tie that ship down really good, it's going to drift away and you're very likely going to lose it and anything that was on it. And then what are you going to do?

Uh-oh. It's a problem. But that's the terminology that the author of Hebrews uses. Here is someone who has been brought into the harbor and they lay down an anchor so that they don't drift away and basically almost certain to just lose the ship altogether and anything that's on the ship. We have, and this is shown on page two of your handout as well, pardon the British spelling of harbor there. We have a map of Ephesus, a simplified map, but the point being there that at Ephesus what they had was a harbor area that was artificially brought way inland.

Why? Because then you could come in, bring your ship in, you could harbor it well away from the storm waves and things of that sort. And if you had an anchor there and you were tied off to the moorings or some combination of those, you're in pretty good shape. But the person who was negligent, who didn't get tied off, who didn't get pulled into a harbor like this, you might just well drift away and lose the whole ship. It would be a disaster. And as a matter of fact, it happened.

And that's one of the reasons why there are a number of different shipwrecks that can be found in the Mediterranean from this time. That's also one of the reasons why I could show you pictures of the anchors. Why? Because they had shipwrecks. People would have their anchors on the ship instead of down into the ground. And so then the divers go down and they say, hey, guess what? We found several anchors. Guess where those came from? People who had in fact been negligent and the ship had drifted away. Sad story, but it happened.

Here is Caesarea. It's a city that was built, at least started, under Herod the Not-So-Great, right? And this Caesarea was one where, that's where Peter went. It's been excavated and there's a lot known about it. By the way, the amphitheater there has Pontius Pilate's name inscribed on one of the stones.

But what would they do? This didn't have a good natural harbor, so what did they do? They built out things to kind of protect from the waves, and they had places, and you can see some of it there even now where there are ships off in the corner in one of those protected areas, and there you would either be tied off, or have a good solid anchor. Another example of how the words that the author of Hebrews used would fit this situation. You want to be in a good harbor, you want to be, having been brought to land, you want to be anchored or tied off or both.

Very well, because you do not want to drift away. It's pretty well hopeless if you drift away. And so this warning passage is not warning of, well, gee, I might drift away and I'll pull it back. No. You're going to probably lose it. This isn't, I'm going to drift away, and it's not a big problem because we're going to fix it. You're very likely to lose it and not have any chance of getting it back.

The author wrote, very interestingly, we. Do you see that? He recognizes that he himself has that same hazard. And in fact, don't every single one of us have the hazard that we can get distracted from something else aside from Christ himself? That we can get our minds off of something?

As a matter of fact, one of the big hazards among Christians is that we substitute things like, well, I went to church. I go to church regularly, or I wrote a check, or something like that. Substitute that for the focus upon Christ. And it would be parallel to the idea, well, I brought my ship into the harbor.

Well, good luck with that, right? Because that's not sufficient. Let's pay closer attention so that we don't get drifted away. So we don't drift away. After having come to know Christ, having gained a position in Christ, we can lose sight of Him by neglect. And that is a key point.

There's not too many Christians that think, you know, I'm going to go out there and just really blow it. I'm going to go out there in the world and, you know, I'm just going to do terrible things. Does that happen very often? Not so much. What's the danger? Neglect. Neglect. And you're not losing your salvation, but losing the focus.

The focus that has to be there. The focus on Christ. Christ is the harbor that we've been brought to, to use the wording and the word picture that the author of Hebrews has. The eternal position that we've been brought to by faith is centered upon Christ.

In fact, if we talk about the position that we have and take Christ out of the whole thing, what have you got? You've got a lot of words. That's all. That's all. It's centered upon Christ. We are in Christ. He is in us. We have been placed into the church which is the body of Christ. We are betrothed to Him. The church is the bride of Christ ever, ever to be His bride for all eternity. Without Christ, none of this has any definition. It's centered upon Christ, and Christ is not optional, Christ is essential.

We have, I noticed downstairs, they had 215 things that are now true of me, now that I'm saved. I saw that in a document they had down there. And earlier this year, when Roger taught, he had a list. It was the same kind of thing, but I think it was 33 things, wasn't it? Right? 33 things. And we uploaded that to the website.

These things are extremely important for a believer to understand, but it all centers upon Christ. Without Christ in the picture, we haven't got a position. But the flip side of that is Christ is the reason that we have a position. He's the central reason why we have a position. Our eternal position in Christ cannot be tainted, lost, harmed, or diminished.

That's not the hazard that the author of Hebrews is warning about. We can, in our daily condition, drift away from it by neglect or lack of attention. And I'm being a little redundant there. I'm not going to lose my position. If I at one time believe that Christ died for my sins, was buried and rose again, I'm saved eternally. But the drifting away hazard is real. And that's exactly what he's warning about here. We lose our focus. What's the most important thing? No, that's the wrong question. Who's the most important thing? Right? Who's the most important thing? The main thing is that we keep the main thing, the main thing, right?

And that's Christ. That's Christ. Now in verse 2, he talks about the word spoken through angels. We have multiple indications of the law of Moses with all 613 statutes. And by the way, you can be thankful for Nancy, she caught that. I had that as statues. No, we don't have 613 statues. It was delivered by means of angels, okay? All 613 was delivered by means of angels.

Hebrews 2.2 says so.

Stephen, when he was speaking to the Jews, Acts 7.53, says so as well. Angels were involved in the delivery of the law.

Galatians 3.19, which you have quoted here in the slide and also on page 3 of your handout, Why the law then? It was added because of transgressions having been ordained through angels. The angels were the servants under God's command. The angels were the servants who brought the law to Moses. So the angels were God's instruments to deliver the law.

All 613 of them. The Old Testament said angels were present. Let's take a look at an example of that. Deuteronomy 33, 1 through 4. It says, Now this is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the sons of Israel before his death. He said, The Lord came from Sinai and dawned on them from Seir. He shone forth from Mount Paran and he came from the midst of 10,000 holy ones at his right hand there was flashing lightning for them indeed he loves the people all your holy ones are in your hand and they followed in your steps and everyone received receives your words and then having gotten from the holy ones the angels having gotten the laws those were then delivered to the people the Greek Old Testament actually has this using the word angelos, angels, that's how it translates it.

Psalm 68, 17 in the King James Version particularly is similar and so we include that. But what does the law do? The law Being an unalterable defines that. Notice on Mount Sinai, the law is given, Moses comes down, he's got the law, it says, here it is, you're going to do this. And you don't have people say, hey, can we negotiate? You don't have people trying to walk up to the mountain and negotiating. Why? Because you do that, you're going to die. Only Moses is allowed up, nobody else.

And so here's the law. Here it is. This isn't multiple choice. Here's 613 laws. Pick a few. Right? It's completely unalterable. You cannot say, well, I'm going to make, you know, it's not really Saturday Sabbath anymore. It's Sunday. And it's Sunday from midnight to midnight now. No, it's unalterable. You cannot change it. And by the way, If you fail to throw the rocks when the rocks are prescribed to be thrown, that's breaking the law. Okay. Nothing is negotiable with the law.

You're going to do all 613 of these things? Period. The unalterable law of Moses did define righteousness on earth. Defined violation of any of those statutes, not statues, And the just penalty for each. Here is the law. It describes what you are to do. It tells you what you are not to do. It defines the violation.

And then there is the penalty. And guess what the penalty frequently was? Studying rocks up really close for a little bit. And people will help you study rocks up close for a little bit. That's the way the law works. That is why the Apostle Paul, 2 Corinthians chapter 3, called it a ministry of condemnation and a ministry of death. Got any volunteers for that? Nobody's really eager for that one. I wonder why?

The law of Moses determined earthly consequences and blessing or cursing, Deuteronomy 28, verse 14 verses, blessing, verse 15 to the end, Cursing for earthly action earthly consequences for earthly actions Gave no empowerment and no way to be saved As one thing that's important to get clear in people's minds. The law was not to save Israel It couldn't save anybody Why because salvation? From the time of Adam to the last person born on this planet will always be has always been by faith always Even to the point where a person could be saved by faith, but die because they picked up a piece of firewood at the wrong day and the wrong hour.

But still saved. By faith. That's the way the law works. Okay? That's the way the law works. The law could end a life, but it couldn't save anybody. Not one. When we look at verses 2 and 3, the law of Moses dictated what a person was to do, was to not do. There are 365 of those 613 laws that are things you're not to do. Okay? 365, just like the number of days in the year, things not to do.

You could only deal with it from earthly resources. Okay? Need somebody to remind you? In fact, if it's fatal, if you fail, you might want somebody to remind you, right? It could end a life, it couldn't give a life. Couldn't do that. And it certainly couldn't save you.

No, the law is a ministry of condemnation and a ministry of death. for all people of all time from Adam to the last person born the planet who is descended from Adam is by faith in God's provision either looking forward to Christ on the cross or looking back that is the great salvation that we have and especially the great salvation that we have as Christian believers during now in the church age The law is not going to help you. The law was really good at measuring shortcomings, dealing out condemnation, punishment. So that is why we need desperately the salvation that only Christ offers.

If it depends on us, I'm probably going to die. Right? If it depends on us, we're going to study rocks up close, and all my friends will help me. If it depends on us, I'm not going to make it. We desperately need the salvation that Christ alone offers. Though the law could bring on a great condemnation, that only doubly emphasized the need for salvation through faith in Christ, the only way of escape. I need desperately to be saved, especially as those rocks are flying at me. I need Christ. Desperately. Now, let's talk about neglect. Let's talk about neglect. What happens when things get neglected here on this planet? It's not so good.

Years ago, Nancy and I owned a Volvo. Matter of fact, we own more Volvos than our kids ever wanted us to own, okay? But nonetheless, we owned a Volvo, right? We owned a Volvo, and I was talking to a friend of mine, and he said, Volvos, those are really good cars. We used to have a Volvo, and it went 70,000 miles without changing at all before it completely froze up, you know? And so what was the problem there? Good car or not, neglect, okay? Neglect. 70,000 miles without changing the oil, that's probably not going to work very well. And it didn't. So this is the way neglect works here.

What happens when we neglect what we have spiritually? Well, it doesn't take away what we have eternally. We can, in our daily experience, however, drift away. We can, in our daily experience, see the consequences in our condition, of drifting away. Not eternally, but with eternal consequences.

The author of Hebrews warned about neglect of salvation that these believers already had. Notice he didn't say, he didn't warn them about rejection of salvation. These are not unbelievers. He didn't warn them about rejection and he didn't warn them about losing their salvation. He warned them about neglect of the salvation that they had.

That was the issue. Slipping back under the law is neglect of the relationship that Christ established entirely by grace. Got that? Slipping back under the law, which is what the author of Hebrews is writing about, is neglect. is neglect of the relationship that Christ established entirely by grace. The relationship will not be broken, but the fellowship will be. What's the problem with the law? Instead of looking to Christ, who am I looking at? How am I doing? As a matter of fact, if you're real careful with the law, you'll be asking, how am I doing every second? Because if you slip up one time that could be time to study rocks Right said and that's the way the law works. It focuses on me. You know, we got this rule down Did it did it did I follow that one? Did I do this, right?

Well, I better not do this right in fact that's part of the problem you got 365 things you're not supposed to do good luck with that Where's your focus going to be? Certainly not on Christ. That was the hazard they had here. Oh, let's just focus on the law and then we'll be good. No. No, it's not good. Matter of fact, that's drifting away. That's neglect. The law isn't going to save you. The law isn't going to help you. The law will be there to condemn you and to kill you. But it's not going to help.

Neglect won't hurt the relationship, get the word distinction here, which is positional, but fellowship, on the other hand, can suffer. Fellowship can suffer. Distinction between relationship, which, if you're a believer, is unchangeable, and fellowship is the daily living out of that relationship that's already established. So that's what his warning about neglect is focused on here.

One of the things we see then in verses three and four is this word spoken that we brought up before. Spoken, confirmed, and God testifying. Those are the three things that come together. The message and content of this so great a salvation was spoken of by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. That's what the author of Hebrews is saying. So one, the Lord himself spoke of it.

Next, those who heard him, that is the disciples, Confirm what he said as witnesses. We're witnesses of these things. Next, God testified. Did God testify by having this booming voice come through the clouds? Hey, that's my son! No, that's not how it happened. He confirmed by speaking through those who heard with supernatural expressions that validated and verified their message. God also testified. He did that by signs, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the Spirit through those who heard and confirmed the word.

Here is an example, and you have it on page 4 of your handout. It's from Luke 18, 32 and 33. It was at first spoken through our Lord, here the Lord says, for He, the Son of Man, will be handed over to the Gentiles will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon and after they have scourged him they will kill him in the third day he will rise again why would he go through that for you and for me that's why he would go through that he told the disciples ahead of time what would take place.

Here is after his resurrection. What does he say? This is on the road to Emmaus. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them, thus it is written that Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. It was spoken through the Lord. And these are just samples. The Lord said in advance what would happen. He explained afterwards the significance in greater and greater clarity and degree. And here's the confirmation, Acts 3, 14 and 15.

You can also look at Acts 2.32.

I'll leave that to you. But you disowned... He's talking to the Jews here. But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murder to be granted to you. But put to death the prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses."

And you can imagine, here are these disciples. There's about a dozen of them hanging around here. You know, we're witnesses. And the other guys are raising their hand, yep. I saw it, I saw it, I saw it. How many witnesses do you need under Jewish law? Two or three, right? We've got several times that right in this group here. We all saw it.

And by the way, you want to go over to the place where He was crucified? You want to go see the place where His grave was? You want to go see that? It's right nearby. It's just a little walk. You won't even break the Sabbath law if you want to go see it. I'll take you for a walk and we'll go show you. But He's not there now. He's not on that cross. He's not in that grave anymore.

We, the bunch of us here, are all witnesses. All these guys raising their hand and nodding their head, they're all witnesses. Two chapters later, Acts 5, 30-32, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to his right hand as a prince and a savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things. They don't back down, even though they get repeated warnings. They don't back down. It was confirmed to us by those who heard. Acts 10 39 through 43 starts off with, we are witnesses of all the things both he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

And he goes on and describes it and he finishes it in verse 43, of him all the prophets bear witness that through his name everyone who what Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. How do you get forgiveness of sins? You try really hard? No. You go to church just real regularly? No. Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. Any exceptions to that? No. None. Everyone. Everyone. Even if you burn up a Volvo, you're still can believe and get forgiveness of sins. God also testifying. And there's four things given in this verse.

At first you might look at it and say, well, it's all kind of the same. There is an intended nuance here, and so let's look at them. Signs, those are supernatural events acting as proofs and clear indications. It's a sign of something, right? So that's the first word, signs. It's a proof and a clear indication, but it's a supernatural event. Wonders. These are supernatural acts causing wonder and awe among those who see it. Can it be the same as a sign? Yes. But the effect is noted here as being different. Next.

Miracles. Supernatural. Notice I keep using the word supernatural. Supernatural displays of God's awesome power. So the focus there is God's awesome power. It may be the same event, but the effect is noted as being different. And finally, gifts of the Holy Spirit. Supernatural gifts distributed among the body of Christ. Now, some of those are still in operation today, and some are not. But there are particular ones, I think the author is pointing to here, that are more extraordinary. And would certainly get our attention. All these are means of God testifying. Okay? All these are means of God testifying. God testified with the witnesses. You notice the terminology there. He testified with them by these things.

And finally we get to the focal point here, so great a salvation. We have by the great love with which God loved us, okay, this is Ephesians 2, 4-7, so great a salvation. That Christ died for our sins is only the beginning of the great salvation bought for us. Only the beginning. Having been blessed with every spiritual blessing.

I wonder where I got that idea, right? in the heavenly places in Christ and Having had our spiritual senses opened by the way This is at the latter part there of Ephesians chapter 1 a lot of our translations Say I pray that the eyes of your hearts may be opened The Greek there says having been opened Having been open so your eyes are open, but do you see do you see that? What your eyes have been open to see? Having had our spiritual senses open, it makes no sense to neglect what we now can see. It makes no sense to neglect what we can now see spiritually.

Just like the guy with the Volvo, it makes no sense to look at the odometer and say, well, boy, isn't that nice? It's 70,000 miles before I burn the engine up. Right? Long, long before, he should have noted, hey, you know, I better change the oil. In fact, just a few miles before that might not have been too late. But, it makes no sense to neglect what we now can see. And that's what the author is calling the people to do. It makes no sense to neglect what you now can see.

Put your focus on Jesus. You've been brought to the harbor which is Him. Keep your anchor in Him. Keep tied to the moorings of Christ. Keep your focus on Him. Nothing else makes any spiritual sense. Let's pray. Lord, you have indeed by your working, by your doing, And we only by faith. You have indeed brought us to the harbor who is Christ. And we have in our eternal position an anchor in Him. But from day to day, we just pray that you would get our attention. That we would not lose sight of the harbor that we've been brought to. The safe harbor. The place that we're meant to walk and to live and to be. We thank you, Lord, for this precious truth. We thank you even more for our precious Savior. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.