Neglect

00:01 Just a word from one of the firefighters. I saw Pastor Jason Miller from the Living Hope Congregation. 00:08 He is on the fire department here in Goshen, and he wanted to make sure that our people knew of their thankfulness and gratefulness and appreciation for the act of kindness and respect and sharing with the firefighters here in Goshen this week. So that comes directly from the mouth of one of them. 00:28 And thank you so much for helping out with that and for Dave and Darlene giving leadership to that. And we pray that fruit would come from that for the kingdom of God. In your copies of the scripture this morning, would you turn to our text from Hebrews chapter 2? 00:48 We'll be looking at verses 1 through 9 this morning, verses 1 through 9. While you're turning there, the Telegraph, a British newspaper, reported a number of years ago that a flock of over 1,300 sheep had to be rounded up by the police in a Spanish city after their shepherd fell asleep. 01:10 He fell asleep, and according to the city authorities, the police were alerted to the presence of this large flock attempting to negotiate down through the streets of this city around 4:30 in the morning when a local resident dialed 911 or their equivalent. I guess it's 112, Spain's emergency number. 01:30 And the dozing shepherd was supposed to keep his animals in check outside the city until about 7:00 that morning when he was due to guide the sheep northwards, north of town to another part, upland, where his flock would graze for the hot summer months. 01:48 The police eventually found the shepherd who was still peacefully sleeping while his sheep attacked, as it were, invaded the city. And he was able to get those all together. But it would happen because somebody didn't pay attention and somebody neglected to do their job, 02:09 to do their duty. We have a text this morning that speaks of neglect, neglect. And something far worse than 1,300 sheep invading a little village is at stake here. And that is the souls of men and women. Yes, even our souls here this morning. For the writer of Hebrews, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 02:29 says this: "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, 02:50 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will? 03:12 For he has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels, but one testified in a certain place, saying, What is man that you are mindful of him, or the Son of Man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. 03:29 You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him, 03:49 but we see Jesus." Say that with me. 03:54 "We see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone." We have three things this morning that we want to pay attention to in this text. 04:12 Number one, we want to pay attention to the superiority of Christ, which produces greater responsibilities. Secondly, we'll be looking at the humiliation of Christ was only temporary. And thirdly, that the death of Christ was absolutely necessary. 04:33 The superiority of Christ produces greater responsibility. The humiliation of Christ was only temporary. And the death of Christ was absolutely necessary. Now we look here at our text this morning at the superiority of Christ, which produces greater responsibility. 04:53 We have a more earnest heed that we must take note of because we are in danger of drifting away. I don't know if you've ever been on a boat that drifted. When I was at home as a young man, we used to do some boating and some fishing in the boat, 05:14 or we would make attempt at fishing anyway. And there were times when you would just drift. And you drifted intentionally because that was the way, instead of trolling to catch your fish, you'd just drift. And that would be your trolling. And other times when you'd think you'd have your anchor down, 05:33 and you'd still drift because it wasn't fastened to something down there that was solid. And then other times you would try to move upstream or upwind to get back to a place where you didn't drift into the shore and you'd do it all over again. 05:53 I remember a number of years ago when my oldest son, Dallas, and I were on a father-son trip out in Oregon, we took a rubber raft into one of the reservoirs there in Oregon where we couldn't use a motor. And so it was all by hand, oars, row, and try to fish. And the one particular day, 06:14 we got more rowing done than fishing, I think. And because it just was the wind was so strong and the current was so strong with that wind, it just seemed like we were always having to straighten out the boat. We were always having to get back upstream, upwind. 06:31 And it took almost all of our efforts to keep that thing from crashing into the shore and going where we didn't want it to go. And the next thing, the only thing that you had to do to get out of control with your boat was to neglect, to neglect the rowing, to neglect and no longer pay attention. 06:53 And you'd just barely get your hook baited and out in the water, and you had to row and straighten it up again. And it feels like that sometimes in our Christian lives, that there's so much wind and so much opposition to the Christian faith and even sometimes to us personally that we feel like we have to just pay all of our attention trying to stay on track. 07:14 And this is the idea when we look at verse 1 here. The idea is we have to pay attention. We have to pay earnest heed. 07:24 In fact, in view of the fact that there's so much wind and so much wind of doctrine and sleight of men and cunning crafting us around us whereby they lie in wait to deceive and where that would tend to get us off track, we have to pay all the more careful attention. 07:43 The word here where it says we need to give the more earnest heed means to be abundantly, exceedingly, or even superabundantly to a greater degree paying attention to this faith. Now, why would we want to pay attention to this faith that's been delivered to us? It's because it's been delivered to us by the Lord, 08:04 by the Lord himself, not just by an angel, not just by an apostle, but by the Lord. And in chapter 1, if you recall, we have to look at that because that word "therefore" is in verse 1. Therefore, in view of the fact that God at Sundry Times and Divers' Manor spoke to us and has revealed himself in his Son, 08:26 and in view of the fact that that Son is superior to any angel, even the highest angel, Christ is superior as the Son of God. And in view of that, we must give earnest heed. This is not something that we can ignore. This is not something that we can just turn away from and not pay attention to. 08:47 This is not something the Christian life, brothers and sisters, is not for sissies. The Christian life is not for people who just don't take it seriously because the only thing you have to do to make shipwreck of your faith is nothing, nothing. You've heard me say it before. 09:07 The only thing you have to do to go to hell is nothing. The only thing you have to do to wash out spiritually is nothing. The only thing you have to do for your marriage to fall apart, your family to fall apart, your life to fall apart is nothing. And so he says we must give the most earnest heed to the things that we have heard, 09:29 lest we drift away. The idea of that phrase "drift away" or in the old King James, it says lest at any time we should let them slip or let slip or drift away, move away from the Christ and the gospel. The idea of drifting in the Greek is what is present here, 09:50 to flow by or to slip away from us just through negligence. Negligence, the word "neglect" here means to ignore or make light of. And we can find that neglect is one of Satan's primary tools in getting people off track, is if he can get us to neglect our salvation, 10:09 get us so busy doing other stuff and paying attention to other things that we slip away from the initial passion of our love for Christ. Even like it says to the church at Ephesus in the book of Revelation, "I have something against you. 10:30 I have something against you. You have all these things going for you, yet I have something against you. You have left your first love. You have neglected your relationship with me. And unless you repent, I will come," Jesus told the church at Ephesus, "I will come and remove your lampstand from your light from the lampstand. 10:52 I will remove you from my presence, my relationship." So he says we must pay attention to this. And the reason for that is in verse 2, "If the word spoken through angels proved steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, 11:13 how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" Now, every word of the Old Testament was steadfast. It was fixed. It was certain. It was immovable. It was unwavering. There were things that were delivered to them by angels. 11:32 You recall the account in the Old Testament of Sodom and Gomorrah, how the angels went down to Sodom and Gomorrah and warned the people. And that was a firm judgment that was coming. And it was delivered by angels. And so that city, 11:52 the next morning, went up in flames as fire and brimstone was raised or was rained down from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah. It was announced by angels. 12:03 And the point here in verse 2 is if angels announce it and there's recompense of judgment, how much more shall we escape if we neglect the word of God, if we neglect the person of Christ who's better than the angels, who's stronger, who's higher, who's more authoritative than the angels? 12:25 You remember Lot's wife as she was warned by those angels, "Do not look back. Do not look back. Don't look back. Go forward. Get out of here. 12:37 Head to the hills." And Lot's wife, the Bible says, as that city was being destroyed, she turned around and with a longing gaze turned into a pillar of salt. You see, there was judgment because she disregarded the word and instruction of an angel. 12:55 How much more judgment is there when we disregard and disobey the word of Jesus Christ himself? That's the point of verse 2. You remember Samson's parents when they feared for their life, when they had been given a message by an angel. That angel came to them and talked to them, 13:16 gave them instructions, and then had a supernatural manifestation and consumed what was sitting there on the rock or what they had offered to him. And they were feared for their life. They took it seriously. 13:31 How much more seriously we need to take the word of Jesus Christ and the salvation that has been introduced by him, even the law, brothers and sisters? The Bible says that the law, while it was given by God, was introduced by angels. 13:51 Acts 7:53, "They received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it." Galatians 3:19, "It was added," that is, the law was added because of transgressions, "till the seed should come," that's Jesus, 14:09 "to whom the promise was made and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator." And so you know what happened when they disobeyed the law? Every transgression and disobedience received a just reward. And it was that way, 14:29 a just reward of penalty, a just reward of retribution. 14:35 The word there, retribution, or the word there, speaking of a just reward, can either be a positive reward or a negative reward depending on the context. And so there is a negative reward for those who disobeyed God's word, God's word in the Old Testament given by angels. 14:57 The word transgression is a stepping across the line. And the word disobedience is a failure to hear and obey what has been heard and to harden one's heart. 15:07 So when they stepped across the line into disobedience and to a callousness of heart, God judged them even though the word was given by angels. 15:19 Now he says, "How shall we escape if we neglect the great salvation, which was at first to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed by those who heard him? How shall we escape? We shall not escape." That's a rhetorical question. 15:40 There is no escape if you disregard the living Christ. There's no escape. And so this is important. 15:54 What we're seeing here is that every degree of revelation produces more and more responsibility. And so the more light that we have through the ages coming from God, delivered through the angels, 16:13 and now coming in Christ, delivered by his own Son, produces a higher degree of responsibility than they had in the Old Testament. And so we rejoice in the fact that we live in the day of grace. But listen to me here, folks. 16:33 We should never, never, never expect and have the mistaken assumption that because of grace, sin will go unpunished. We should never assume that because it won't. It won't. 16:53 Yes, we live under the grace of God. For those of us who obey the word of God and who love Jesus Christ, who have received Christ and who are walking in humble obedience to Christ, our sins are covered. But we should never assume that if we neglect the salvation that God has given to us, that we can just slide by. 17:16 Can't do that. Can't do that. For those who experience God's power of grace, it includes divine enablement as we had in our Sunday school lesson this morning to live above sin. There is an even greater responsibility to walk in the truth of his holiness. 17:36 We have a great responsibility because of the superiority of Christ and of grace gives us a greater responsibility to live in grace and in obedience and in holiness. Amen. You're off the quiet this morning. 18:01 The kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus announced it. This day, salvation has come to this house. Jesus announced it. A greater one than Solomon is here. Jesus announced it. This day, this scripture is fulfilled in your midst. Jesus announced it. 18:19 And what Jesus said comes all the way up to the highest level of revelation and the highest level of responsibility that there could ever be in all of history. 18:34 So now there is no excuse for not believing and holding to the truth of Christ. So how shall we escape if we neglect this great salvation? This salvation is so great that it was spoken by the Lord himself. It was confirmed by the apostles. 18:55 Now, mind you, this was not spoken by the apostles and confirmed by the Lord. That's the other way around. 19:01 It was spoken by the Lord, confirmed by the apostles, born witness by the Father and the Holy Spirit, God also bearing witness with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. 19:21 Distributions of gifts and of the Holy Spirit to the people of God through signs and wonders and special acts of God and miracles all confirmed Jesus as the Christ. 19:38 And so since there is a supernatural message and a supernatural confirmation, that says something about the importance of this gospel. A gospel that came from God and not man can only be confirmed by actions that come from God and not man. 19:58 And so he says this gospel was confirmed by God through the Holy Spirit and signs and wonders that confirmed the gospel and Christ himself giving it, the apostles sharing it, and God confirming it. 20:15 Now, the second point that we have this morning is that the humiliation of Christ was only temporary. The superiority of Christ leads to a greater responsibility. Now, the humiliation of Christ was a temporary experience. 20:37 We look in verse 5, "He has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels, but one testified in a certain place saying, 'What is man?'" And then he quotes Psalm 8. Now, where do we see the humiliation of Christ here? Well, we see it in verse 9. 20:58 We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels. That's humiliation. That's coming under subjection, subjugation. For the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, he was made lower than the angels. He came to suffer and die. 21:18 In suffering and death, he tasted death for every man and was then exalted to his former position of glory and honor. But it came through humiliation. Now, none of the angels were given dominion over the earth. You don't find any place in scripture that says the earth was given dominion to the angels. 21:39 Now, they do have authority under God. They usurped authority, the false angels. But it was to man, you're going to have to follow this line of thought this morning, it was to man that God gave dominion. 21:54 And so he says, "He has not put the world to come of which we speak or even the world which was past under the subjection of angels." He gave that to man. And then he says in verse 6, "But one testified in a certain place saying, 'What is man that you are mindful of him?'" It's interesting that he did not say, 22:15 but David said, or the Psalm says, he says, "Someone somewhere said." And I think what he's doing there in that statement is he is de-emphasizing the human element of that message and emphasizing the divine element of the message. God's word says. 22:36 And so what does it say? "What is man that you are mindful of him or the Son of Man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet." What's he talking about here? 22:55 Who is David and the Holy Spirit and God speaking of here in Psalm 8 being quoted in verses 6 and 7 and 8? Well, he's talking about man. 23:09 "What is man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of Man that thou visitest him or that thou carest for him?" He's talking about mankind. That God gave dominion to man, he didn't give it to the angels. 23:28 The word in Hebrew is he made him a little lower than Elohim, made him a little lower than God, 23:38 and crowned him with glory and honor. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation was lower than the angels. But however you translate that, it was God's intention that man should reign under the authority of the Father. 23:51 But something happened in Genesis 3 when man abdicated or stepped back from his responsibility to exercise dominion. And he did what? He gave dominion over to the devil, Lucifer. 24:10 And so there's some dominion that was given over to the unseen demonic forces and powers and world. And how do we get that back? How do we get it back? Well, that's what he's talking about here. 24:27 You see, it was God's intention that man should reign under the authority of the Father. Man gave his authority to the enemy, the angels. God didn't give it to them. Man gave it to them. And the result was confusion, exile, sin, 24:49 corruption, decay, death, slavery, slavery to sin, Satan, and death, and oppression. And you can go on and list all kinds of descriptive words about the world in which we live, which is now not under the dominion of man. Yes, man still has been given that God-ordained dominion, 25:10 and he exercises it to a certain degree. But he cannot fully exercise it because he gave it up. God cared for man. He paid attention to him. He honored him. 25:30 He exalted him. He put him in charge. But verse 8 says, "In that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. 25:42 But now we do not yet see all things put under him." Now, I had a little bit of a misunderstanding about that verse 8 until I studied it more deeply. 25:55 My understanding was that this is talking about Christ in verses 5 through 8 and that even that Christ has been given authority and everything is under subjection to him, but we don't yet see it under subjection to him. I think that's not quite what the text is saying. Verse 5 through 8, I believe, is speaking of man. 26:17 Man. He blew it. He forfeited his authority and his dominion. And what God intended for man to exercise is now not being exercised. 26:35 And why do you say that? Because of verse 9? "But we see Jesus." Jesus. What's the significance of this? 26:49 Jesus humiliated a temporary humiliation, but a very real humiliation to restore and purchase back the enemy from the enemy and from man's 27:08 sin to put all things back under the authority of the Son of God, the Son of Man, Jesus the Christ, as that authority. 27:22 And I find it significant that he uses the term here, Jesus, verse 9. "But we see Jesus." He doesn't use the term, "We see Jesus Christ," or, "We see Jesus Christ our Lord," or, "We see Christ Jesus." He just uses the human name of Jesus. 27:44 That is his human name, Jesus. Christ being his emphasizing his divinity and his anointedness. 27:51 Jesus being his emphasizing his humanity says, "We see Jesus, the man, through his humiliation at the cross, restoring mankind to the position of authority in Christ so that we as God's heirs now, our heirs of God, 28:10 joined heirs with Christ and shall reign with him forever and ever." The only way we could get it back was through Christ, through Jesus and his humiliation. 28:28 We see Jesus a little lower than the angels for a while, at which time he laid aside some of his rights without laying aside any of his essence. This is an extremely important difference. Jesus, 28:48 when he was humiliated, laid aside some of his rights. He never laid aside his essence. What is his essence? He is God. He is the Son of God. In the emptying out of Christ, 29:09 he did not empty himself out of deity, but he added to himself humanity. And he did that without losing any of his deity, even though in his humiliation, he gave up some of the rights of deity. Very, very important distinction. 29:31 I find no place in scripture where scripture gives indication that Jesus became temporarily not God. That is a false teaching. It is a false doctrine. But he did lay aside some of his abilities. For instance, he was not everywhere present. He was only knowing what the Father revealed to him. 29:53 So some of his omniscience was some of those rights were laid aside and his omnipotence, he was subject to the Father and everything. But he was still God. 30:10 And now, as the God-man has been exalted to a position of glory and honor, having tasted death for everyone. 30:25 So this leads us to our point that the death of Christ was absolutely necessary. 30:31 It was absolutely necessary to deal with the confusion, to deal with the exile, to deal with the sin, the corruption, the decay, the death, the slavery to sin and the servitude and the oppression is all necessary that this Son of God, this God-man, 30:51 this Son of Man combination, however we understand him and however he did that, it was necessary for him to die to accomplish what the Father wanted to accomplish, to free man what we could never be free of ourselves. We could never free ourselves. 31:13 As the masterpiece of the human race, he needed to taste death for every one of us. I love this phrase, that he might taste death for everyone. Let's look at that just a minute. 31:28 When Jesus tasted it, he did it for us. And the word taste there is a synonym for the word consume or devour. Now, 31:49 when Jesus tasted death for every man, I don't think he just sipped it. 31:55 I think he devoured it. And when you devour it, it loses its power. 32:07 So subtle difference, subtle difference. But I think he endured the full force of the death. You see, you and I, when we die now in Christ, pass through the valley of the shadow of death. We only get the shadow. 32:30 Jesus was run over by the truck of death. Somebody illustrated this one like this one time. A child was concerned about death and dying. And so their daddy took him out along a road and there was a truck that went past. And daddy said, 32:51 "Let's stand here in the shadow." And as the truck went past, they were in the shadow of the truck. Now, daddy said, "Did that hurt you?" "No, it didn't hurt." Well, that's a little bit what death is for the Christian. We get the shadow of death. 33:12 Jesus got hit by the truck, as it were. He got hit by the truck. He took death. 33:20 He tasted it and he experienced it full force so that we can be elevated with him in Christ for eternity. 33:36 "What was forfeited to an angel by man was taken back by man for God, that we might rule and reign with Christ as joint heirs of the Father forever." Now, with that in mind, 33:56 do not neglect this salvation. Now, I want to give you in the next five minutes, it's going to take you're going to have to hold onto your seatbelt. I want to give you some signs of spiritual drift, signs of spiritual neglect. 34:21 And unfortunately, as I looked at these, I saw too much of myself in them. Number one sign of spiritual drift and spiritual neglect is a neglect of prayer. 34:33 Jesus said, "Watch and pray, for the spirit is willing, 34:38 but the flesh is weak." We will drift, brothers and sisters, if we don't pray. And I'm saying myself that to myself. 34:52 The second thing that will be an evidence of drift, it will both cause drift and evidence drift is a neglect of the word of the truth and of the doctrine of God. 35:06 Someone has said it like this, "Doctrinal corruption precedes moral corruption." It's very true, very true. 35:19 Doctrinal corruption or corruption in what we believe and of walking in the truth and embracing the truth and living the truth and studying the truth. The Bible says that if we do not rightly divide the word of truth, then we are subject to shame and embarrassment. Pay attention to study the word of God. 35:40 Study to show thyself approved unto God. The word study means pay attention to it, be diligent in it. Be diligent to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. If we don't know the word of truth, we don't rightly divide the word of truth. We are subject and in danger of being ashamed and embarrassed before God and man. 36:05 The third thing that is an evidence of neglect is the neglect of worship, the neglect of worship. There's something that happens when we come into the presence of God and bow our head and our heart before him, 36:26 both in public worship and in private worship, that keeps us anchored at the cross. It keeps us anchored and focused, worshiping God. When a heart starts to drift and neglect, they no longer care about worship. 36:46 They no longer care about worship. If you don't care about worship, and I'm not just talking about singing, I'm talking about worshiping God and spirit and truth, you don't care about that, then we really need to take a look. Are we drifting and are we neglecting our salvation? Number four, a neglect of the fellowship of the church. To neglect the fellowship of the church, 37:06 brothers and sisters, is both to cause spiritual drift, to contribute to spiritual drift, and to give evidence of spiritual drift. The Bible says, "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, 37:25 his Son, cleanses us from all sin." You see, walking in the light, fellowship with one another, cleansing from sin, it all kind of morphs together, blends together. Hebrews 10:24, "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, 37:47 for he is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke, to love, and do good works, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves." I quoted or read that passage this morning. Notice it says, "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, and let us consider one another." And if we are not in relationship and fellowship with other believers, 38:09 we will drift away and neglect our salvation. Number five, a neglect of righteousness and godly disciplines both contributes to and gives evidence of a neglect. 38:27 "Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, let us lay aside the weights. Let us pay attention to righteousness, to spiritual disciplines in our lives. 38:51 "Lest after we ourselves have preached to many, we should become a castaway." Number six, a neglect of our inner world. A lot of this happens in the inner world, in the inner man, where our minds and our hearts are not being given due diligence. 39:12 Hebrews says, "Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled." You see, a root of bitterness, if you don't take care of that, will defile you. And it's neglecting. If you neglect the root of bitterness, you'll be defiled. I'll be defiled. 39:31 "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you, in any of you, an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." That heart of unbelief, if we neglect the heart, 39:44 we run the risk of being disqualified and falling away. "But exhort one another daily. Why it is called today, 'Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.'" And so if we don't pay attention to our inner world, we can be deceived. 40:06 Number seven, a neglect of relationships. It's very close to the neglect of fellowship. But this is a little bit different. 40:13 Neglecting relationships where we have a lack of love and concern for others, where we have a lack of love for the lost, a lack of love for the brethren, a lack of love for the family, a lack of love for the poor, where there sets in a callousness and indifference and apathy and a critical spirit, 40:32 will both contribute to a falling away and give evidence of a falling away. And number eight, neglecting the gospel, neglecting gospel. That kind of pulls it all together. If we neglect the gospel, 40:54 we will receive a just reward, punishment, discipline. 41:04 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also the Greek, 41:13 for by it the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of those who hold the truth in unrighteousness." We dare not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. 41:32 But what do we do? We just kind of paint over our deficiencies sometimes instead of really dealing with them. I'll close with this illustration. In 2004, the Boston Public Library opened an exhibit to commemorate the 85th anniversary of a strange event. 41:49 Boston has what's called the Great Molasses Flood. It killed 21 people and injured 150. On January 15th, 1919, an enormous steel vat containing 2.3 million gallons of molten molasses burst. 42:12 Hot, sticky waves of syrup 30 feet tall destroyed buildings, crushed freight cars, wagons, automobiles, and drowned people. One author called it the dark tide. This enormous tank was 50 feet high and 240 feet around, had been poorly designed. Everybody knew it contained leaks. 42:31 But what they did with the leaks, they just kept painting over them. Out of sight, out of mind, neglect. They knew that the vat was dangerous, but they didn't do anything about it. And great tragedy and suffering resulted. You say that's kind of humorous. 42:51 It's really not. It's really not. We do the same thing, brothers and sisters. God reveals an area of our lives where we're slipping, we're slipping, we're neglecting, we're drifting away. And we kind of paint it over. We paint it over. We kind of neglect it, 43:12 just put some Band-Aids on it, and forget to deal with the real heart issues. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I pray this morning that you will, through this warning, one of the initial of five warnings in the book of Hebrews, 43:35 they all get more and more severe. This is severe enough to know that if we drift away from the gospel, there is a just reward of punishment. And Lord, 43:53 let us not be presuming upon grace that grace just covers all of our disobedience, our willful sin and rebellion. No. 44:07 Grace enables us to live for God, but it does not justify sin. And so, Father, I pray that if there be someone of us, including myself today, that is neglecting, drifting away from any of these areas that we've identified this morning, 44:27 that you would call us back to really do the heartwork of allowing your Holy Spirit to take the things of Christ 44:42 and shore up the foundation and repair the brokenness that is often ignored. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. I'm going to do something this morning. We're going to sing. 45:01 Let's stand together. Corbin, I've got a song. 45:07 This morning, the Lord laid on my heart the song that we've been singing, "Open the Wells of Grace and Salvation." We sang the first verse during the offering. I didn't intend to do this. Second verse during the membership. Let's sing the third verse. "I would be thine and serve thee forever, 45:28 filled with thy Spirit, lost in thy love. Come to my heart, Lord. Come with anointing. Showers of grace send down from above." Let's sing it. You want to lead it?