Well, it's my privilege to be here again, to be with you, to share the word of God with you. May we worship the Lord together through the day and delight in his word of truth.

So let's turn together to our chapters, to the epistle to the Hebrews, which we read earlier. And particularly this morning, I want to turn to Hebrews chapter two and part of verse three, the opening of verse three. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?

Let's read the sentence which begins in verse two, verse two to four. So the context reads, for if the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompensive reward, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his will?

How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation.

Sometimes if you walk along the coast, particularly where there's cliff edges or where the rocks have started to become weak or crumbling, you can walk along a path and you come across a sign. And there's a fence put across the sign, sorry, across the path, and the sign warns of danger. And the danger is that if you press on along the path, if you climb over the fence and keep going, you are treading on ground that is unstable, which is likely to break away, and where you are likely to severely injure yourself, perhaps even fall off the cliff,

the sign is there, the fence is there to stop you entering into that dangerous area. And there may well be an alternative path directed. And so you can see a track perhaps that's been marked out away from the fence, away from the danger sign and taking you to safety. There at that moment you have a path of safety, you have a path that leads you from danger or you have a path which involves ignoring the sign ignoring the fence, climbing over it, and foolishly going into an area where you might be injured.

Well, we know which would be the sensible path to take. Or, to put it the other way, we know which way would be the foolish path to take. to climb over the fence and to put yourself at the edge of the crumbling cliff would be foolish. The sign is there, the word is there to warn us and to direct us in the right way.

Now you could say that we have all been walking a path and our path has brought us to this morning. God has been over every day of our lives. We believe in a God of providence. That is, that he knows every step that we take, that he is over every aspect of our lives. And therefore, our presence in this place on this morning is no coincidence. It is not by chance. Us being here this morning isn't outside of God's knowledge. In fact, he has directed our path to this day and to this time.

We can forget that. We can think because it's our routine, because week by week we gather at a particular time, at a particular place, that this is just the routine, it's just another Sunday morning. But it's not just another Sunday morning. God has spared you to this day. I don't know where we might have been in the last week, or what we might have done in the last week, But any number of things in the last week could have hindered us being here today. We could have been injured in traveling. We could have been ill and unable to be here. Our path could have directed in any number of ways that meant we couldn't be here this morning. And yet God has spared your life to this day. and you have no guarantee that he will spare your life beyond it. You have no certainty of this afternoon, let alone of tomorrow, or of the weeks or months to come. We expect it, we might be in good health, we anticipate to have tomorrow, we expect to have tomorrow, and we say that the general one of our life leads us to believe it's likely we'll have tomorrow. But we can't be sure tomorrow. What we can be sure of is that God has looked over and spared your life to this morning.

We have in that way been walking a path, and the path has brought us to today. And God has brought us now to a time of worship. We are gathered this morning to worship God. We are gathered to hear the word of God. We open our Bibles, we want to hear from the word of God. We are gathered to fellowship with each other as the Lord's people. There's many blessings of being here, but we are gathered to worship. But I wonder, are you gathered to worship? Do you actually worship the Lord? Because God's people worship the Lord and they worship him as their God.

Now, the angels of heaven worship God. They worship God because he is their king. They worship God because he is their creator. They worship God because he is over them. They are his servants. In that sense, everyone in this world should worship God. He is our king and creator. We are all dependent on God. Your existence, your presence here this morning is dependent on God. You must be, you should be, a worshipper. But God's people worship God in a deeper and a more wonderful way than that. They worship Him as Savior. They have known His love. And I wonder if you worship God in that way this morning. A God whom you love and whom you trust in as your Savior. Or have you just turned up? because that's what you always do on a Sunday morning.

He's brought us to this time and he's brought us to this sign. As it were, there's a break in the road, there's a stop in the road, like a fence over the path. And it says this, how shall we escape? if we neglect so great a salvation. In other words, how shall we escape if we do not know what it is to worship God as our saviour, to worship God as my God? How shall we escape if we climb over the fence and ignore the warning How shall we escape if we neglect? And this word neglect, it's really speaking of being careless about something or making light of something. Being unconcerned about this salvation. Laughing at the sign, for example. Mocking the fence or thinking that the fence is unnecessary or unimportant. taking no notice of it, being careless about it. How shall we escape if we are careless about this salvation, about this message? How shall we escape if we hop over the fence and neglect the warning that is the point, and there are certain texts, aren't there, there are certain moments in the word of God that are like those warning signs that stop us in our tracks, or at least they should stop us in our tracks, and this is one of them. It should make us stop and consider, am I neglecting? Am I careless? And if I am, how will I escape? What is the path that I'm walking on?

This morning I want to think perhaps of some answers that people might give, that you might even be thinking, of reasons for neglecting the message of salvation. Reasons for being careless. And you'll find that the word of God answers your reasoning. And some people will say, first of all, that they neglect this salvation, that they ignore this text because they do not need it. I don't need salvation. And so this is the person who comes along and they say, I am quite enjoying the path that I'm walking. I am enjoying my life that I'm currently living. I have my friends around me who are all enjoying the same thing and walking the same path. I have my plans for the future of my pathway. I want to walk that pathway. It looks like a very pleasant pathway of my choosing.

This is someone who says, I think the path over the fence looks perfectly safe and that's my choice to walk it. I wish the people who erected the fence would stop worrying. I wish they would stop being so negative. I wonder if that's anyone's thinking this morning. I'm enjoying the path that I'm walking. I'm enjoying the course of my life. It's what I want and I wish you would stop bringing a negative message to tell me there's something wrong, to tell me I need to take heed. I am happy and I want to carry on. The view looks good. The path looks fine. Why not enjoy the moment?

And this is a person who is effectively saying I'm comfortable where I am and so I don't need to have this salvation because I think everything is fine. I think it's all safe. When you may be thinking like that this morning, that may be your rationale for ignoring the gospel message. It may be your rationale for switching off during the preaching of God's word. But I ask you, if that is your thinking, what about your sins? What about them? What about your relationship with God? We can try to ignore it and try to put it to one side, but what about it? What about your sins?

You know, don't you, we all know deep down that we have guilt, that we have sin. We all know that we have not kept God's word, God's commandments as we should. We all know that our instinct by nature is to jump over the fence and to ignore the warning of God's word. You know you're a sinner. And you know that your sin has separated you from God. How is your relationship with God? Do you have a relationship with God? Yeah, because sin, the effect of sin is to separate us from God. We are told that your sins have separated between you and your God. We remember that God is holy and pure and sinless. And sin is like that barrier that sits between us. And if you do not know the Lord as your saviour, and you are walking that path with the justification that you are happy and you don't need to worry, then you surely have to acknowledge that God is not in your life. He's not in your thoughts. He's not in your plans. You try to blank his word out, you try to blank the Lord out of your life.

But you know that you don't know him as other people do. You know you don't pray. You don't listen. He is not in your thoughts or life because sin has separated between you and God. And so you may say, life's fine, I'm happy in the pathway, stop being negative, but you have to answer these questions. You need to realistically consider these questions. What about your sin? What is the answer to not having God in your life? And then, what about the end? because we can all be happy with the moment, but we all know that the end will come. We all know that death is on the road, that that certainty of death and we're told after death, the judgment. After death, the judgment. What about your sins then? those sins that you've put to the back of your mind, those sins that you're pretending are not there, even those sins that you are delighting in and you are justifying and saying, I can enjoy this sin, it doesn't matter. But how do you answer that question after death, the judgment? How will you stand?

You see, you can say in the moment, to make you feel better and to justify your position that I don't need this salvation and that all will be fine and yet you can't answer those points because the word of God says you do need it. In fact how will you escape if you neglect so great salvation?

And so the first group of people, they say, I don't need salvation, but here is another group. And they say, well, I may acknowledge I need salvation, but I don't believe that this is the way of salvation. I may need something, but not this way.

So this is someone who says, here is a path set out before me. Here is the path of the gospel, the way of salvation by God's grace through Jesus Christ. But I have a different way in mind. I have a different path. I have a way of my choosing.

And to many people, that way of choosing is, I will be good enough. My path that I choose, the life that I live will be good enough for God. He will be pleased or he will at least be more pleased with me than with other people.

And so this is a comparative religion. We look at other people and we say well I'm better than them and so God is likely to be pleased with me. And so I believe that I do have a problem with sin, and I do believe that there is a day of judgment, but I believe I can stand confidently in that day of judgment because God will fundamentally be pleased with what I have done.

He'll be pleased with how I have lived. He'll be pleased of the kindness that I have shown. He'll be pleased that I have had the label of Christian. that I have been to a church, that I have mixed with other people who are Christians, and so God will accept me for who I am and what I've done.

So I can enjoy life today, I don't really need to worry too much, because I believe that fundamentally at the end of the day, God will be gracious and kind and will accept me for who I am. That's my way of salvation. But that's not God's way. That's a way that makes you feel comfortable and makes you feel better, but it's not God's way.

You need to hear what God says. He has spoken. We read that right at the beginning of our reading. Chapter one, verse one. God who in sundry times and in diverse manners, that means many ways and many times, he spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in his last days spoken unto us by his son.

See, we are not in ignorance. We are not trying to work out what is right. We know. because God has spoken. He has told us the way of salvation. And this is God who speaks to us. Remember, as I said in opening, that the whole chapter is about the angels.

And in our verse before, in verse 2 of chapter 2, if the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape? In other words, this isn't just the word of an angel. It certainly isn't just the thinking, the words of men. It's the word of God.

And what does the word of God tell us about the way of salvation? And it tells us, as we read in sundry times in diverse manners, that means it tells us in many ways, but it tells us really the same thing. Let me give you some examples. Noah and the flood. Noah was told that the flood was going to come and destroy the world because of the wickedness in the world and Noah was commanded to build the ark as God laid out for him and that those who were in the ark would be safe. Noah obeyed. Noah built that ark, and we know that the day came that Noah and his sons and their wives went into the ark, and God shut the door. And there, with all the animals, there was safety. And as the deluge came, and as the waters of the deep were broken up, and as the earth was flooded, there was one place where life was preserved. There was one place of safety, and that was in the ark.

God, through that, was preaching the gospel. And he was saying that we are guilty and we deserve his wrath and yet there is a place of safety. Not in what we do, but in what God provides.

And then we come through the years and we come to the children of Israel in Egypt. And there's the 10th plague and God says, I will pass through Egypt tonight and all those homes where there is no marking of the blood will know the death of the firstborn. The destroying angel will pass through and there will be a great cry and wail because there is death in every single house. And yet where there is a lamb taken, where there is a substitute offered where there is blood applied in that house will be life in that house will be safety

God through that was preaching the gospel that there is death the wages of sin is death but there is life for those who shelter in the blood there is life because a substitute has died in the place of the firstborn because the lamb has died in the place of the firstborn. He was preaching the gospel.

Come to the place of worship in the Old Testament. Come to the tabernacle. And there the gospel is repeatedly preached. But it's preached in that way that when the high priest goes into the most holy place, he must go into the presence of God with the blood of the offering. He must sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice, thereby preaching the gospel, that the only way into the presence of God is through the blood of the offering, through the death of another.

Come to the wilderness journey. You remember how the people of Israel were bitten because of their sins by the serpents. And God didn't take away the serpents, God said rise up, a serpent, a brazen serpent on a pole and whoever having been bitten looked to that serpent would live. God showed to them that their sin would be dealt with, the serpents would bite them but there was a way of life. thereby preaching the gospel as Jesus teaches us that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up and so can you see that time and again through various ways sundry times in diverse places this same gospel has been preached and it is always we need the Lord to save us we cannot go our way that we cannot be good enough, but we are saved in God's way, and that is through the death of another.

And so we come to the New Testament proclamation of the Lord Jesus where he proclaims to us, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And so you may say, I believe I need something, but I want my way. But the Lord's word, his word tells us that every other way is wrong. It may be what we want. It may look right, but it's wrong. For the Lord clearly shows us the way of salvation is nothing through what we can do at all. but through only what he has done. And so we are told again, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, the way that the Lord has shown us?

But then we may say, here's another group of people, and they say, well, I understand that that is in the word of God. I understand that that is what the gospel preaches to us. But I don't understand how it is that Jesus can save. How is it that the life of Jesus, who lived so long ago, is relevant to me today? Sin is my problem today. It's what I live with, it's the effect of sin. My life is as it is today, so many years since the life of Jesus. How is it that the life and death of someone thousands of years ago can have any impact at all on my need for salvation today? Isn't that a reason to neglect salvation? I need something different. I need something up to date. I need something more modern.

This salvation. This great salvation. It's never out of date. It is never not applicable for us. Look what has happened. We read it in chapter 1 verse 3. Look who this Lord Jesus is. Who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

You might say, this seems so remote, so distant, such a long time ago. But look what we're told. The Lord Jesus Christ is the brightness of God's glory. He is the express image of his person. That is, he is verily God. As we look at the face of Jesus Christ, we see God. And I know that when we look at his life, of course, largely speaking, he looked, of course, just like any ordinary person. He was fully man. And there was only glimpses of his deity at times. You think of the Mount of Transfiguration, particularly, when they saw him in his glory. And yet, listen to his words. Look at his character. Observe his miracles. See the biblical Jesus. Do we not see the brightness of His glory? Do we not see the wonder of the gracious, merciful, loving character of God? God has come. How is that not relevant today? How is that out of date or lost its time? How can we say that God coming to this world is not important today?

In the Word of God, We see the brightness of his glory. And why has he come? When he had by himself purged our sin. And purged means really to wash away, to take it away, to remove it. Or as we read in the prophet of Isaiah, your sins shall be as wool, they shall be red like scarlet, they shall be as snow. It means to completely cleanse, to take it out, to take it away. He has come to purge our sins. And you say, how is that relevant to me today? You have sin. We all have sin. And here the Word of God is telling us that there is one and only one who can take away that sin. Only one who can purge that sin. Isn't that relevant? Isn't that important?

And you see the Lord has preached that gospel of a substitute throughout the Old Testament, of blood shed on behalf of another throughout the Old Testament. And so we come to this, he has come to purge our sins and it's through that same way. He has shed his blood. Given his life, died in the place of his people, there is a substitute. But the wonder is that this is God who has come. The brightness of His glory, the express image of His person. This isn't the death of a lamb, or the death of a bullock, or of a goat. This is God who has come. And we could trust our souls to no one else but God. But if He has come, And he has stood in a sinner's place. And he has purged away their sins. You remember those three points I said earlier? What about your sin? What about your relationship with God? What about the end? Or what about them?

Jesus Christ came to bear the sins of many. As Isaiah tells us, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.

What about our sin? The Lord Jesus Christ is the sin bearer. What about that separation from God? For your sins have separated you from God. Well, the Lord came to that cross and in those hours of darkness, he cries out, my God, why has thou forsaken me? For he was separated from God. He was forsaken of God as the sin bearer.

What about the end? What about the consequences of sin? What about death? And the Lord cried, it is finished. and he gave up the ghost, that though he was perfect and had no sin, he laid down his life and finished that work of salvation.

You see, the Christian can say, I have sin, and my sin has separated me from God, and after death will be the judgment, and yet the Lord has taken all of that and borne it on my behalf. Which is why the apostle tells us this is so great salvation. A wonderful salvation because God has come to this world in his grace and stood in the sinner's place and defeated death on their behalf.

You say it seems remote? It seems distant? No. It's so relevant. This is the way of salvation. How can it be? How can it be for you? There's other people, people from years ago. Is it really for the 21st century? Is this really a message that I need to worry about today?

Ah, look what we read about this, Lord. The closing verses of chapter one. Thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest. They shall all wax old, as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same. Thy years shall not fail.

Yes, time moves on. This is speaking, of course, of the end of the world. That the world will be folded up like a garment, that the end will come. But we see so much change. The world is such a different place from, you know, the days of Jesus from the first century, from the days of the Roman Empire. The world is a completely different place today. And yes, in a sense, you could say everything has changed.

How is this relevant today? And it's because of this. He hasn't changed. His years shall not fail. He laid the foundations of the world, yes. And he will wrap up this world one day. But his years shall not fail. His throne is forever.

Look what he says about this throne in verse 8, chapter 1. To the Son, he says, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. There is a throne, a throne this morning. We have seen the warning sign. It says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? And then we are directed to a throne. And what is a throne? Well, a throne, of course, is the seat of a king, of a monarch. It's a throne of power and authority. Here on the throne is God, the eternal God, a God who hasn't changed at all, the just and the holy king.

And yet we're told that there is a throne of grace. Come boldly to a throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. A throne of grace. See this is a throne which is the same this morning. And the warning sign is saying there is a throne, and this is the path that the sinner is called to come to. How can you escape if you neglect this way? There is a throne of grace, for the Lord still receives sinners. The Lord still hears the cry of the sinner. He still hears that simple confession, God be merciful to me, a sinner, still hears. Because it's an everlasting throne. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A throne of grace.

And you see, he holds out a scepter of righteousness. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. And that takes us into the throne room of the palace in Shushan, doesn't it? and the King Artaxerxes, King Ahasuerus, sorry, and Esther. And she goes into the presence of the king, and the only thing that she has hope for, the only thing that she's looking out for as she makes her approach, no doubt down some great carpet or royal approach to the throne, the only thing she's looking for is whether he's holding out his scepter. Because everything hangs on that moment. He holds out the scepter and she is welcome. He holds it back and she's dead. And we're told the king held out the scepter. He held it out and she was welcomed. And he heard her plea. And she came to a throne of power, didn't she? What he was able to do as king there.

He held out the scepter, but we have it here. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. It's as if the Lord there sitting on his throne of grace is holding out the golden scepter. And he's saying, this is the way of salvation. This is the only way. And I hold this out. This is what we might plead. This is the way that the sinner can come. And this is why it's relevant today. This is why the gospel is never out of fashion or never old. It is relevant because we are sinners, and yet God is a God on a throne of grace with a scepter of righteousness. And so I ask the question, as the word of God asks it to us this morning, how shall we escape Which other way are we going to go? Which other hope have we possibly got if we neglect so great salvation?

Jonah was down there in the fish's belly for three days and three nights. Jonah, guilty as the runaway, disobedient prophet, Jonah who caused the storm, Jonah who deserved to be down there in the fish's belly. And yet Jonah said, I will look again. I will look again toward the holy temple. And Jonah, as undeserving and in as helpless an impossible situation as he could possibly imagine down there in the depths, could, I can half imagine, cry at the top of his voice. Salvation is of the Lord. He can save me out of this place when I look to him. And that's what this text is telling us. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? He has shown us the way. There is none other. What would we do? if we don't seek after it.

Well, may God bless us from the challenge of his word this morning. Amen.