Leaking and drifting

Issue no. 14

  Scripture Reading: Heb. 2:1-4

  The book of Hebrews contains various passages of warnings. Every time there is a word of warning in Hebrews, we can find an important teaching immediately preceding or following the warning. An important teaching may appear first, and then a word of warning follows. Or an important teaching may be preceded by a warning. This is the structure of the book of Hebrews. In this book, there are five or six warnings. The passage we read in Hebrews 2 comprises the first warning. This warning is placed in between chapters one and two. What does chapter one cover? Chapter one is on glory. What does chapter two cover? Chapter two is on shame. Chapter one is on God and chapter two is on man. Chapter one is on glory and chapter two is on suffering. Chapter one tells us who Christ is from eternity past to eternity future, while chapter two tells us what He has accomplished in time. Chapter one is on His person, while chapter two is on His work. In between these two chapters, we have a word of warning. What is this warning about? It is a warning for us to give heed concerning the person of Christ and His work. What kind of attitude should we have when speaking of the person of Christ and His work?

  First we must be clear concerning the teaching and the background of this book. Before we study the first warning in Hebrews, we must briefly mention the ones to whom this book was addressed. We know that the book of Hebrews was written to the Hebrews. A group of Jews were saved; they understood the things concerning the Old Testament, the temple, and the worship in the temple. At the same time, they also knew about the New Testament and the worship in the New Testament. They had known Christ and believed in Him, received Him, and were saved. Now they had both of the above things. They were Christians and not outsiders. This letter was not written to the Gentiles, nor to those who had never known salvation. This letter was written to those who knew salvation already. They were not unbelievers, but Christians. The word Hebrews is very meaningful; it means river crossers. The first Hebrew was Abraham. Abraham lived first on the east side of the river. Later he moved to the west side. Because he crossed the Euphrates River to the west side, he became a Hebrew. Hebrews means the river crossers. The book of Hebrews was written to the river crossers. It was written to those who had given up something behind them and were pursuing toward something before them. They left the former world behind, and following God's word, they journeyed on to a new place. God wrote through the apostle to the Hebrews who had forsaken the world and who were standing in a new realm. They were like us who have believed in the Lord Jesus, who have denied the former world, and who are standing today on a new ground and in a new sphere. This letter was written to this group of people.

  It is very interesting that such a warning was given to this group of people: "Therefore we ought to give heed more abundantly to the things which have been heard lest perhaps we drift away." This is the first warning; it was given to the Hebrews, the Israelites. Behind them was one world, and before them was another kind of life. God issued a warning to this group of people through the mouth of the apostle. This warning also tells us what the present danger is. The danger is to drift away. Today we will study this warning in detail. It says that we should give heed, and that if we do not give heed, there is the danger of drifting away. This warning is needed because there is the danger ahead, the possibility, of drifting along with the current. The result of drifting along with the current is to miss so great a salvation. Why do we have to give heed? It is because this great salvation has been accomplished by God already, and we have to give heed lest we lose it. We have to give heed because there is the possibility of missing this great salvation. Who is behind this great salvation? It is God, the Lord, and the Holy Spirit; They have distributed it to us.

  Let us now consider Hebrews 2:1. We cannot study all four verses. We can study only the first verse, using the other three verses as supplements. Verse 1 says, "Therefore,..." This means that this verse is a continuation of what was spoken of before. Because the Lord Jesus, as spoken of in chapter one, is so lofty, glorious, and excellent, because He is such a God, full of glory, and above all men and even the angels, we have to give heed to the things that we have heard. Because the things that we have heard convey such a Jesus to us, we have to give heed. The Bible is a wonderful book. The Gospel of John is different from all the other Gospels, and the things it records are different from those that are recorded in the other Gospels. When one reads Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he can place them side by side. But one cannot put the Gospel of John alongside the other Gospels; it has to be placed in a different category. It does not record the birth of Jesus by Mary, because it starts from the beginning, from eternity past. Everything it says has to do with things that are in glory, at the beginning, far above all, and before the ages. Our gospel today does not merely tell men, either sinners or believers, about a fisherman who walked by the Sea of Galilee nineteen hundred years ago. Nor do we want to show men merely a carpenter from Nazareth who lived nineteen hundred years ago. Neither are we presenting to men a Jesus who is merely human, a son of man born of Mary. Rather, we are presenting One whom God calls His companion. We want men to know the Lord Jesus as the One who was there from eternity past and who is in the glory now. We have to speak about His relationship with us, and about the things we have seen. He is not a bastard. The Jews thought that He was just a bastard born in the land of Judea nineteen hundred thirty years ago. But this is not what we preach. We begin from eternity past; He was there in eternity past. This is why we have to give heed to the things which we have heard.

  Friends, we have to give heed today. But to what do we have to give heed? We have to give heed to the things which have been heard. What have we heard? We have heard the things concerning the Lord Jesus. How much have we heard? I believe those who are sitting here have heard a great deal about the Lord Jesus. We have heard so much. What should we do now?

  We ought to give heed! The apostle included himself in this admonition. I do not know who the writer of Hebrews was. Some have said that it was Paul, and others have said that it was Luke. Since it does not tell us who he was, we do not need to say anything about it. God did not tell us his name, and we do not have to guess it. I will not say who wrote this book. I will not do what the Bible has not done. Let us suppose that it was written by the apostle. We can see how careful the apostle was. He said we and not you. The danger of drifting could happen to the apostle also. There was danger to not only the Hebrews or the new believers. All the river crossers are included; even the apostle was included in this category.

  Here we find the Greek word pararrhueo. This word has two meanings. The first meaning is to leak away, to slip away; the second meaning is to drift away with the current and become lost. There are different translations of this word. Some convey the sense of drifting, while others convey the sense of leaking. But both meanings are present in the word. Since both meanings are present, we will consider both meanings. This morning, my intention is to show you both meanings of the word.

  What is leaking? Here is a pan of water. Suppose there is a hole in the pan, and you have to bring the pan from one end of the room to the other end and back, or suppose you have to bring the water from the well to the kitchen. You have to run quickly because the water will drip away. By the time you have the pan in the house, the water will be gone. The apostle said that we should give heed lest we leak away. This means that since we have heard so many things concerning the Lord Jesus, we should not allow them to leak away. In some respects, I am very unhappy about Christians today. If you ask them the names of their sons, they can tell you right away. They never forget the names of their sons. But if you ask them what the Bible speaks of, what Matthew 1 or Mark 16 speaks of, they will not be able to remember a thing. I am afraid that many people do not have the slightest idea what John 1—3 is about. They may remember something while they are listening to a message in the morning. But by the afternoon, they have forgotten many of the things. Many people have a good memory about many things, but the things concerning Christ always leak away. It is impossible to talk to them about the things concerning Christ. Friends, may I say an honest and seemingly unkind word: this proves where our heart is. We know where our door is and where our home is. Yet many of us are unclear about too many of the crucial matters in the Bible. These things have leaked away. God has often given us the opportunity to hear things about Christ. Yet much of what we have heard has leaked away. We cannot deny this fact before God. We cannot deny the fact that we have forgotten many things concerning Christ. We can say our mind is not sharp enough, but it is not a matter of the mind. If there were something wrong with our mind, how could we still eat our meals properly and manage our houses properly? Why do we not forget about the things of others? I can accept our negligence of our own affairs or the affairs of others, but I cannot accept our negligence of the things of Christ. We have allowed them to leak away. The problem among Christians today is that they have allowed God's word to slip away from them. When temptations come, everything of the Lord has leaked away. It is a dangerous thing to be leaking. This is not only my danger; it was the apostle's danger also. Temptations often come, and we desperately try to find a verse, but we cannot find one. We cannot find our weapon at the crucial hour, because there is leakage. Why do we never forget the things that our children have asked us about? Why is it that they never leak away from us? This is one reason why so many people fall into the hand of the enemy. If we do not have any leakage, we can immediately deal with Satan. We cannot say, "Satan, I know that you are coming to tempt me. I can do nothing. So please wait, and let me go and find a verse." If we do this, we will fail immediately. In His three dealings with Satan, the Lord Jesus did not slip once. The problem today is that there is the leaking and there is the drifting. We can remember everything except the things of Christ. Friends, I must say an unkind word (we preachers often have to speak unkind words). I have to say that this condition proves that our heart is not on Christ. Our heart is on the things of the world. This is why we have forgotten Christ. If there were no hole, there would be no possibility of any leakage. I do not know what your holes are. In order to leak, there must be holes. Without a hole, there cannot be any leakage. It may be only a small hole, but as long as there is a hole, there is the leakage. Without a hole, there would be no possibility of any leakage. Why is it that many people have allowed the things of Christ to leak away? The only reason is that they have paid too much attention to their family, their money, their children, their possessions, their business, or their education. There has to be something to which your heart is attached, which becomes your hole and results in the leakage. Some may be worse; they may have sins which they have not properly condemned. A few days ago, a missionary told me that he has met a few Christians who are not very honest and who lie a great deal. It is very pitiful that a Christian can lie and be dishonest. We all have to find out where our hole is. I do not know what kind of worldly things or sins have caused us to forget about and lose the things of Christ. We must find out if we have any holes and if the things of Christ have leaked away. If there is dishonesty or other transgressions in us, we have to deal with them. When the sins are dealt with, the leaks will be stopped.

  I know a brother who has a poor memory. If you say two things to him, he will listen to the second and forget about the first. He easily forgets. He has been a Christian for six years. Has his forgetfulness been a hole to him? Not at all. He forgets about everything, but he never allows anything concerning Christ to leak away. If you speak to him about Christ, he remembers it very well. If you speak to him about the world, he forgets about it right away. He will tell you that he cannot remember so many things. I cannot excuse anyone for forgetting about the things concerning Christ, because God's Word does not excuse anyone. Do not think that a clever person with a good memory will remember every spiritual thing; do not think that they have an edge over the not-so-clever ones. There is not such a thing. The wise ones are the same as the foolish ones; both are sinners. There may be differences in secular things, but there is no difference in spiritual things. We cannot judge whether or not a person has had any leakage based on his memory. I can prove to you in many ways that many people with poor memories do not have any leakage, because they are single in following the Lord. You may not have lived in rural communities, and consequently, may not have seen many of these cases. If you go to a country girl, or an old woman from a village, who does not have much knowledge, she may not be able to tell you much about the world. But if you tell her about the Lord, she can understand very well. I met one Christian who was ninety-seven years old. The book he wrote had the third largest circulation in the world. The book with the most circulation is the Bible. The second best-read book is The Pilgrim's Progress. Other than these two books, no other book has been more widely circulated than the book this old man wrote, which is called Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment. I met this old man once when he was ninety-seven years old. His memory had faded, and many times he could not even recognize his own daughter-in-law. When I went to see him, I greeted him five times, but he could not respond to me. By the sixth or seventh time he was able to respond. All the worldly things had leaked away from him. But the things of the Lord had not leaked away. He had not allowed anything that was revealed to him to leak away. He kept repeating, "I cannot live without Him, and He cannot live without me." This was the only thing he said: "I cannot live without Him, and He cannot live without me." Everything with him was gone. I can say that all the gray matter in his brain was practically gone. But the things of the Lord had not leaked away from him. Was not the woman by the well of Sychar able to drink to her satisfaction? That Samaritan woman could fill herself up with the living water. But if there had been a hole in her, everything would have been gone from her in two days. I must warn you honestly that you must deal with the things that cause the leakages. Perhaps you are not single enough, or perhaps there is sin in you. I must say a word at the risk of offending you: The way we spend our money often exposes our holes. We allow ourselves to get by with a torn Bible, but we have the money to buy toy cars for our children. This shows the kind of things that we remember and the kind of things that we forget. It shows where our heart is. O Lord, be merciful to us! What we forget in our heart can be expressed in the things that are without. If there is no hole in our heart, there is no possibility of a leakage. Many people are not concerned about the things of Christ. I have to ask you to pardon me again for saying these things, but I feel that I have to say them. Among us, many brothers and sisters are too pitiful. No matter what subject is brought up, they can easily join in the conversation; they have answers for everything and can carry on any conversation. But once you speak of spiritual matters, they immediately become silent, as if this subject is beyond them. Many people are clever in many things; they are astute and clear in their mind and sharp in their memory. But they cannot conduct any conversation on spiritual matters. This is a bad sign. May the Lord be merciful to us. Here are holes! We have allowed everything that we have heard to leak away. We have heard so much concerning Christ. Where have we kept it? May the Lord be merciful to us!

  The word pararrhueo not only means leaking; in the original language it also means drifting past. Drifting means that there is no need of exerting any strength. It requires strength to sail a boat. But if one drifts along with the current, there is no need to exert any strength. To drift is to go along with the power of the current. It means to follow the direction of the flow; wherever the water goes, one follows along. Please remember that it is impossible to arrive at one's destiny by drifting. If you want to go to Pu-tong, you have to hold firmly to your rudder and steer forcefully. You cannot drift along. If you drift along, you will never arrive at your destiny. If you want to reach the Kao-chang Temple, you cannot follow the current down to the Wu-soong River mouth. You cannot drift. In order to arrive at a specified destiny, one cannot drift; he has to fight against drifting with singleness of effort. It takes effort to arrive at a destiny. But it does not take any effort to drift; all that one has to do is to lie on the water and float along. Wherever the current takes him, he follows along. Wherever the water carries him, he goes with it. He goes where the wind carries him. This is drifting. Friends, all spiritual things, all spiritual walks, and everything related to Christ require that we firmly grasp the Lord and also require a conscious effort to oppose Satan, the world, and ourselves. Can we rest and be at ease? Is it easy to be a Christian? Can we be careless and drift with the tide? There is no such cheap thing. Please remember that in order to have a single destiny in our heart, we cannot drift. Let me ask what the goal of our Christian life today is. If we wanted to go to Pu-tong and our boat was moving west, we would surely become worried. If the boat continued in the westward direction, we would never reach Pu-tong and we would miss our destiny. But if we had no intention of going to Pu-tong, and if we had no destiny at all, we would drift along and be satisfied with whatever came along the way.

  Every Christian should have an ambition to please the Lord. Needless to say, our ambition is not to please ourselves. We cannot be satisfied with whatever comes along. We have to have a goal and we should press toward the mark, forgetting what is behind and pressing forward to what is before. Many people do not have anything behind them, because they do not have a goal ahead of them. If one does not have a goal, he does not have anything behind him or in front of him. To him every place is the same. In traveling from Nanking to Shanghai, and especially around the Kun-shan district, one sees many buffalo-driven water mills. The water mills are geared to large treadmills, and the buffalos walk around the treadmills day and night, circling them continuously. They are constantly walking, yet they remain in the same place all the time; everywhere is the starting point and everywhere is the ending point; there is no beginning and no ending. They do not know which way is east and which way is west, which way is north and which way is south; they do not have a goal, and all they do is walk around the treadmills. You have to realize that many Christians are the same. They go around in circles every day. There is no front and no back. They are drifting because they do not have a goal. What is the purpose of becoming a Christian? Do you really intend to glorify God as the Scripture says? If you do, you have to show me your faith, and you have to press forward all the way to the end. You have to set your eyes on the goal, and you must resolve to reach your goal. If you see anything contrary to this goal, you have to exert your effort to resist it. If you see the race ahead of you, you will surely forget the things that are behind and press forward toward the goal. Otherwise, you will be drifting. Young men and women, does your Christian life have a goal? Those who do not have a goal will surely drift. Recently I was in Hong Kong, and I visited a co-worker there who is also my friend and whom I have not seen for a long time. He told me about a very rich man in Hong Kong who is a nominal member of the Anglican Church. He told my friend, "Don't visit me anymore. You are serving God, while I am serving mammon. You should serve God with all your heart and all your soul, and I must serve mammon with all my heart and all my soul. You have your way and I have my way." You can see that although this man took the wrong way, he nevertheless had a goal. He wanted to serve mammon with all his heart and all his soul. What I am the most afraid of is drifting. Today many Christians are drifting. Sometimes they serve God, while at other times they serve mammon. They do not have a direction, and they are drifting. If the water carries them to Pu-tong, they go to Pu-tong, and if the water carries them to Pu-si, they go to Pu-si.

  Do you know what the danger of drifting is? Drifting is something that goes on unnoticed. If a whirlwind comes and takes you away, you feel it right away, because the change is sudden. If a large steamer comes and tugs you along, you feel it immediately. Drifting, however, goes on unconsciously. But drifting always goes from a higher place to a lower place. There is no question about the direction; it is always from the higher place to the lower place, from the upper ground to the lower ground. Drifting does not take any effort. Moreover, it does not take any feeling. A boat ride from here to Wu-soong takes an hour or more. But if one drifts along, it may take six or more hours. Drifting is slow, and there is not much difference between one minute and the next. There is not much difference in three or five minutes. But in six hours, one can find himself in Wu-soong and in a very different place. Many brothers have not committed any gross sins; they are still quite good. They still read the Bible, come to meetings, offer money, and seem to be the same as before. But after one day, two days, one month, two months, in three or four years, they are very different. One does not backslide suddenly or instantly. There is no such thing as an instant backsliding. No spiritual experience occurs suddenly; everything manifests itself in time. It is a very bad thing to drift along. In the end everything drifts away. You may not have committed any gross sins, but you have backslidden imperceptibly. Perhaps nothing will manifest itself immediately, and perhaps no one sees much of a difference in your Christian life. But you must remember that drifting will never carry you upward; it always carries you downward. Conditions deteriorate day after day, one day at a time. You may not feel this deterioration, but others can feel it already. All pianists know the truth in the adage: "If a man does not practice his piano for a day, he knows it. If he does not practice for two days, his wife knows it. If he does not practice for three days, the whole world knows it." A little slippage every day will eventually manifest itself. In the beginning, there is very little difference, but in the end, the difference will become very great. God requires that we live before Him every day. Every day, we have to exercise our spiritual strength, and like the apostle, we have to exercise all our inner strength and the power of our spirit and our soul to stand fast and not drift. If we do this, we will see some progress in spiritual matters. If Satan gave us the whole world in one instant, we would not take it. What he does instead is to cause us to stand still and not advance, to gradually drift along with the tide, until one day we fall. I am convinced that Satan is not hasty in dragging us into gross sins. If Satan tried to induce you to kill a man today, you would surely not do it. He will not induce you to commit any great sins. He always comes slowly. Today he will put a hatred within you. Tomorrow he will put a jealousy within you. Perhaps after twenty years, you will have the thought of killing someone. (Please be reminded that Satan is very patient. His patience far exceeds our patience.) It is not inconceivable for us to do such a thing. Every day we need spiritual strength, and we need to maintain the condition that we had at the beginning. God's hand will preserve us. Do not become careless just because today is more or less the same as yesterday. A little bit of difference every day will become a big difference in ten or twenty years' time. May the Lord be merciful to those Christians who think that everything is more or less the same! Drifting is being without a goal. It is not feeling anything. But the result of drifting is always a downward trend; one always travels from a higher ground to a lower ground. We must be clear that no one can drift from the Wu-soong River mouth to the Kao-chang Temple. The current will never carry one upward. No one can drift from the mouth of the Yangtze River to Wu-han. This is impossible. It is impossible for you to expect growth in your spiritual life if you are drifting. I have never seen a person who does not exercise his will experience any progress. D.L. Moody said that he never saw a lazy person be saved. I can also say that I have never seen a lazy person who grows. It may be possible to strike a fortune by being lazy, but being lazy will certainly not work in spiritual matters. If one does not press forward, he will receive nothing. If one is not hungry, he will not be satisfied. If one does not pray and fast before the Lord, he cannot expect to receive anything. The word perhaps is not applicable here. Drifting is always downward; never think that perhaps one can drift upward. To hope that things will get better in a few days, that the weather will get better in a few days, and that you will feel better is to drift along.

  Let us consider some of the dangers a Christian can face. According to the apostle, the greatest dangers are to drift and to leak. Let us take this first warning as our reminder. Everyone can leak, and everyone can drift. We can lose everything that God has given to us by leaking, and we can miss everything that God will give to us by drifting. Pararrhueo means to slide past or miss. You may want to board a big ship moored in the middle of the Whampoa River. When your little boat tries to come close to the ship, the current will be too strong, and you will not be able to resist the current. It will be impossible to fight the current, and you will slide past the ship. This is what the apostle meant. You follow the tide and do not resist the power of the current. As a result, you miss your target. Therefore, we have to find out where our leakage is. If we continue to drift, we will miss our mark. Our present danger lies in our leaking and drifting. This is why the apostle told us to give heed and not to be careless. A careless man cannot be a government official. A careless woman cannot be a good mother. A careless person cannot be a good child or a good teacher, and a careless person cannot be a proper Christian. No careless person can be a proper Christian. All careless people fail to see the danger of drifting and leaking. Only the people who give heed will have the eyes to see, and only they will grow spiritually. We do not give heed enough, and we are too careless concerning spiritual matters. This is why we often slide back gradually. For this reason, the apostle exhorted us to give heed more abundantly to the things that have been heard. Paul said that we have to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). We have to work out our own salvation by cultivating a fear for our own weakness and a fear for God. Many Christians are fearful of nothing today. In spiritual matters, fear is one thing that is very necessary. If we live in jesting and laughter every day and if we are careless in everything, without seeing the need of fearing God, and if we do not have any feeling for anything, but are nonchalant and unconcerned about spiritual matters and ignorant of their value to us, we have not seen our need and have not realized our danger.

  What is the result of such dangers? The following verses tell us where we will drift to and what we will lose. We may think that to drift and to leak are not serious. But the apostle warned us soberly concerning what we will lose by drifting and leaking this way. What did the apostle say? Verse 3 says, "How shall we escape if we have neglected so great a salvation." Sin is present. How shall we escape? What are we neglecting? We are neglecting so great a salvation. In a minute we will see what this great salvation is. Perhaps we can touch upon it briefly now. Many sinners perish because they would not let go of one meal. Many others perish because they refuse to let go of a little sleep. There are many instances like these. Sometimes a gospel meeting starts at six, and a sinner needs to eat at half past six. Because of his meal, he perishes. He has neglected so great a salvation. Sometimes a gospel meeting starts at eight, but a person needs to go to sleep early. As a result he misses his opportunity again. But many Christians are negligent also. They have allowed the gospel which they have heard and the things of Christ which they have heard to leak away. They do not care if these things have leaked away. The result is that they miss so great a salvation.

  What is the salvation spoken of in the book of Hebrews? I dare not say anything about the salvation mentioned in the other books. But the salvation spoken of in the book of Hebrews is a salvation that saves us to the uttermost. Jesus lives forever and will save us to the uttermost (7:25). This is an uttermost salvation. What is this salvation? This salvation is not just the forgiveness of sin through the blood shed by the Lord Jesus on the cross, and it is not just deliverance from hell into heaven. Of course, the salvation in Hebrews includes the cross. But it has to do particularly with us becoming a fully saved person while living on earth, and with our receiving the glory together with Christ in the millennium. Let me ask you a question. Suppose a brother has done something which is not very proper. His family may say, "Would one who believes in Jesus do such a thing also?" Although this person is not going to perish again, and although he will not become unsaved, one does not find him different from other men; there is no distinction in him. He is standing on the ground of an unsaved person. Suppose you have a bad temper, and you have believed in the Lord. You have heard about the Lord Jesus being your overcoming life. Yet this matter has slipped away from you. Because you have drifted, you do not have the experience of it, and you lose your temper again. What will your classmates and colleagues think of you? They will think that you are the same as they are, and that you lose your temper just the same. The unbelievers will say that such a believer still loses his temper, and is no different from anyone else. In this way, you have neglected so great a salvation. You have not allowed the Lord to save you out of the sin of your temper. You have not distinguished yourself from the unbelievers, and have missed so great a salvation. Suppose there are many clerks working in a shop. It is a small thing in the world to receive a little bribe. But suppose you are one of the clerks. If you are the same as the others and are not separated from them, you have neglected so great a salvation. When unbelievers take a taxi, they often argue with the drivers. But if you do the same thing, others will say that you are the same as everyone else. They will not sense your difference among them, and you will miss your great salvation. You have not shown your distinction among them in these matters. Among us there are many who are children to their parents. Last night I heard someone say that he did not agree with his mother because she was not fair. The worst thing for a mother to find is that her children complain that she is not fair. Before a mother is saved, her children can say such a thing about her. But what happens now that she is saved? If her children still say the same thing about her, and if she has not changed at all, she has missed so great a salvation. Sometimes people say, "Your children are the same as my children. There is not much difference." When this happens, you have lost your testimony. Many times, we would rather be ridiculed than lose our distinction before our family. They can be wrong, but we must not be wrong. Our difference and our contrast with others is our strongest testimony. I know of one mother who is much opposed by her children, only because she wants them to be different from others. But she insisted that her children be different from the time they were very young. This is the proper way for children in Christian families to be; they are different from the whole world around them. That mother has been a real Christian. She has not neglected so great a salvation. She is distinct, and she maintains her testimony. We have to be afraid of not being distinct. We have to be different from the world in the way we dress, in the way we handle affairs, and in the way we use our money and our time. You have to be different from the world even in the way you use your towel. Please remember that we should never drift or slip with respect to God's gospel. We have to preserve ourselves from drifting away from so great a salvation. God's salvation not only includes our life in this age, but it includes the kingdom and being in glory with the Lord in the millennium. Salvation is not just for this age; it is for the coming kingdom as well. In order for us to have so great a salvation, and share in the glory of the kingdom, we have to preserve our distinctiveness and should not drift or slip.

  Finally, let us consider this whole passage briefly. We will read from verse 1 on. "Therefore we ought to give heed more abundantly to the things which have been heard..." We have to give heed to the things which have been heard, which are the things concerning Christ, lest we drift away, lose, or leak away. We must not leak away or drift away, because there is "the word spoken through angels," which is the Old Testament law. The law was ordained through angels (Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19). Such a word through the angels should not be transgressed against or disobeyed. (To transgress is on the positive side, while to disobey is on the negative side.) "Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense." How much more serious will it be if we neglect so great a salvation? This salvation is different from anything else in the whole world. It was not preached by men, but by the Son of God; it was conveyed to us by the glorious Son of God. How shall we escape if we have neglected so great a salvation? We cannot escape, because this salvation had its beginning in being spoken by the Lord, which is different from the law described in verse 2. If the law was spoken through the angels, and those who transgressed against it suffered great punishment, "how shall we escape if we have neglected so great a salvation, which, having had its beginning in being spoken by the Lord, has been confirmed to us by those who heard, God bearing witness with them both by signs and wonders and by various works of power and by distributions of the Holy Spirit according to His will"? This is the apostle's warning to us. He exhorts us not to drift or leak away. This is the Lord's own word to us, and it is testified to by God and the Holy Spirit. May the Lord be gracious to us, that we not be careless in the things which we have heard from God. Never think that only those who have committed gross sins have backslidden. We should not drift, and we should not leak away!