May it please God to bless our
meditation this morning in his word as we turn to the epistle
of Paul to the Hebrews and chapter 2 and we'll read the first verse. The second chapter of the epistle
of Paul to the Hebrews and reading verse 1. Therefore we ought to
give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard
lest at any time we should let them slip. We often read the Word of God
and perhaps often fail to absorb the simple and important truths
that it contains. And as we're blessed to have
this epistle written to the Hebrews, to the Jews, and to explain to
them the greatness of the plan of salvation in the face of Jesus
Christ, and to therefore be reminded of the importance of remembering
those things which we have heard, lest we should let them slip
Now the Apostle here directs us very clearly and he tells
us, therefore, referring of course to those things which he's previously
expounded in the first chapter, we ought to give the more earnest
heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should
let them slip. And surely it's very easy to
realise that we can be very casual, can't we? in our times of worship. We can be very casual really
in the reading of the Word of God. We can almost sometimes
feel it or perhaps think it to be a chore to perhaps have to
come to worship or indeed to read the Word of God. But here
the Apostle puts a very different and important emphasis on it
by instructing us that because of those great truths that the
Apostle has spoken of, just in those few verses in the first
chapter, and of course there's very much more, that we ought,
every one of us, to give the more earnest heed to the things
which we have heard. And it is that we realize the
importance of these things and are concerned that we do not
therefore let them slip or forget them. As we find ourselves perhaps
not as conscientious in the things of God as we should be, what
occurs then is the great truths, the great blessings the Word
of God contains, they tend to fade and perhaps almost disappear
out of our minds. And so it's good to realise that
we have such good word here of instruction that we are earnest,
we take earnest heed to the things that we have heard. Now I'm sure
that we have to confess that many times we have not taken
earnest heed. Many times we have not really
listened to the truth of God. But here we have an exhortation
for us today that if that has been so in our life past, that
in the future we may realize the relevance of and the importance
of the great truths of God. And therefore, here, what the
Apostle tells us to do, that we should give the more earnest
heed. We ought to. There's no real
excuse why we should not, is there? And it's only really because
of our sinful nature and because of the devil who doesn't want
us to remember the things of God. Never forget that you have
a great enemy an enemy of our souls, who is constantly desiring,
and is often successful, to turn us away from the things of God,
so that we remember loads of rubbish, but we don't remember
the things of God. I expect perhaps, like myself,
you can remember, those of us who are older, go back to when
we were young, and the things that I can remember when I was
young, some of them very foolish, some of them very evil, some
of them very wrong. And that's no real benefit, is
it? When you and I come to stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
but it will be a benefit, it will be a blessing to us if we
remember and if we give earnest heed to the great truths which
are contained in the Word of God. And that's what we want
to be able to remember. and to constantly bring to our
minds these great soul-reviving and soul-encouraging truths and
soul-enlivening truths which are contained in the Word of
God. So we should be thankful today
that the Lord in his great goodness has given us a word spoken like
this in very simple terms for us. so that we should take heed
to them. And just before we go back to
perhaps the first chapter, we'll note what the apostle tells us
and he says, for if the word spoken by angels was steadfast
and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of
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 their witness,
both with signs and wonders, and with diverse miracles and
gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will. So there's a
gracious word of warning to us here this morning, when the apostle
tells us, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? What that really means is that
we neglect the truth of God. We neglect the Word of God and
we therefore just concentrate on things which do not profit. And when I say that, I don't
mean naturally, I mean spiritually. Things that do not benefit, do
not profit our soul. It's a very important consideration,
isn't it, in our lives day by day? As we find ourselves necessarily
involved in the things of this world, we have to earn our living.
And that, of course, is right and proper. We were told that
we should earn our bread by the sweat of our brows, so we should
recognise we have to work. We can't sit at home and just
do nothing. We have to work for our living,
which is right and proper. But we should not give way to
the opportunities that we do have day by day to turn our attention
to the things of God. I think of that term, which I'm
not a lover of at all, but it is a term which we use, and that's
leisure time. Perhaps that means time that
we're not actually involved in work, which we necessarily have
to do. And if there are those times
of leisure, then how do we spend those times of leisure? and is
our principal concern, our principal desire, to be found walking in
this way, to remember the things that we've heard, give earnest
heed to them, the truth of God, that we may be encouraged in
our soul and by these things grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. So we are to be careful
that we do not neglect the great salvation which the Lord has
shown to us in his word, the great truth of God. Now, I'm
sure again, if we're honest, we look back in our lives, perhaps
we look at our lives today and we have to realise that we have
perhaps neglected the things of God. Or put it another way,
the things of God haven't had the priority in our life. We've
allowed other things to creep in, to slip in. The devil is
always ready to find an avenue into our hearts to distract us
from the things of God. How able he is, how cunning he
is, and we should be very aware of his devices. And it is because
of that that the Lord has given us such a word of encouragement. to strengthen our faith that
we may be found in doing those things which are truly beneficial
for our soul. We ought to give the more earnest
heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should
let them slip. And what have we heard? Well,
the Apostle tells us, doesn't he, some of those things which
we have heard. and he commences this book or
epistle to the Hebrews, and it's quite interesting how he starts
this epistle. Generally speaking, when he addresses
the various churches, he addresses them individually, the Philippians
or Colossians, but here he is speaking to the Jews as a people. And so he is able to address
them in this way. And they would, of course, have
been familiar from the Old Testament teachings of these great truths. But nonetheless, we see that
in these New Testament times it was so necessary to speak
to the Jews, because probably this was written something about
60 or 65 AD, when Paul was probably not a young man. And he instructs
his nation, as it were, in these great truths. He tells us, God,
who at sundry times and in diverse manners, as many ways, he spake
in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. Well, we're
aware of that, I expect. We have all the prophets recorded
and those great details which they contain. And those are the
words which are spoken indeed to Israel of old. Israel of old,
as we know, were a very privileged people. They were wonderfully
favoured people. They were God's people and God
had a special view of them and they were wonderfully instructed.
And so he tells them that's what it was. But again, remember now
he's addressing the Jews and he's now saying, hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son. There were many unbelieving
Jews, and it was necessary that they were directed to this way. And it's good for us to realize
the great truth, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he hath appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the worlds." Just a few words,
isn't it? but what it contains. Here we
have a truth spoken of in Genesis, the Lord God spoke the world
into being and here it is confirmed by the Apostle as he directs
us to this situation, he has appointed heir of all things
by whom also he made the worlds. Well that should give us some
idea of the greatness of the Lord God and the greatness of
our Saviour and the wonderful power that he had and the wonderful
power that he has. Let us remember the power of
God never diminishes because we're told again in the Hebrews. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday
and today and forever. He is the same. He has the same
power today that he had in eternity past. It will never remain the
same. So we should not lose sight of
the fact that we are dealing with the great God. That God
who controls our lives, our thoughts, our actions, our words. This
is the great God. The Apostle goes on, 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 on the right hand of the
Majesty on high. How very directly the Apostle
comes and points out the great and glorious work of the Saviour. And how needful it is that you
and I should concentrate continually to meditate on the great and
blessed work of the Saviour. And what did that work do? Well, we're told here, aren't
we, when he had himself purged our sins. That means he's taken
away our sins. This was his great work, wasn't
it? To wash away the sins of all
his church, so that they might be a people who were cleansed
and a people who were prepared then to enter in to that holy
place in glory. There's no sin in glory, no sin
at all. And if you and I have the smallest
sin upon us, we shall not be able to enter in to heaven. We need to be totally cleansed,
totally washed, totally purged from all our sins. And that is
something, of course, which we cannot do ourselves. You may
ask the question, why can't I do it myself? It's because we are
sinners. And it's because sin is mixed
with all we do. That means our very best desires,
our very best actions, our best thoughts, if you and I are really
honest and really examine ourselves very carefully, we will find
that in all our best endeavours, they are not perfect. They are
faulty. There's something wrong with
them. One of the things which usually produces itself is pride. And we are so easily proud. Proud of being humble, proud
of what we think. So easily we become proud. And
pride is sin. So how we therefore need this
great and wonderful blessing to be purged from our sins. Well, the Word tells us here
that that's precisely what the blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ did When he came to this world and when he had by himself,
himself, what did he need to do, what did he have to do? He
had to give himself. And to give himself as a sacrifice
so that he might take away our sins. He offered himself to his
father as that perfect sacrifice for sin. It's illustrated throughout
the Old Testament the sacrifice necessary for sin. It had to
be carried out, and of course the great indication of death
for that sacrifice was the shedding of blood. When an animal was
slain, there was the blood shed. And how evident that was. And
so we can thank God today that we have the evidence of this
great and glorious sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ, who gave
his life who died upon that cross at Calvary, who shed his precious
blood in order that we might be purged from our sins. Well, bless God, he did not fail
in that great and wonderful commission that his father gave him to do.
Don't underestimate the hardship of the life that he lived those
33 years. You see, this is all food for
us, isn't it? It's all things that we ought
to be found thinking about and to give them more earnest heed
to the things we have heard, to think upon them, to meditate
upon them, to marvel at them, and to fall down and praise God
for them. All these things are so important,
aren't they? And yet so easily, as it were,
we forget them. We become so involved in the
trivial things of life, the great things of God, get pushed into
the background. That's why the Apostle, under
the influence of the Spirit of God, has written such things
for the Jews in his day, for the Church of God in his day,
and for the Church of God down through the ages. And we have
this great truth then, and it's a very important truth. He sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. There he is
today, my friends. It's hard for us to Imagine,
in fact, it's impossible for us to imagine the glory of the
Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to realise there we have
God the Father on the throne and also the Son on the throne
on his right hand. And for the wonderful work that
the Saviour does, what does he do? Well, he intercedes for our
prayers. And you may say, well, why is
it necessary? that the Lord Jesus Christ has
to intercede for our prayers. Well, we alluded to it. Everything
that we do has sin mixed with it. And what we are doing when
we are praying, really, we are entering into the holy place.
Our prayers enter into the holy place, the place of glory, and
there cannot be any sin there. So therefore, we need someone
to take our case, to present our prayers unto our Father. And that person is none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a wonderful picture in
the Old Testament. And again, you and I should never
tire of reading the Old Testament, and never pass it by and don't
think it's irrelevant, because there are tremendous truths and
wonderful illustrations that we have in the Word of God to
direct us to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And perhaps
none less than the temple, or of course the tabernacle, which
was the originator. And there we have that wonderful
picture in the Old Testament of the holy place and the most
holy place, the holy of holies, And there the Lord condescended
to come down in that cloud upon the mercy seat. And there on that great and glorious
day of atonement, the high priest was able to come into the holy
place. He had to enter through the veil,
through the veil which separated the holy place from the most
holy place, and he went in and He had to bring blood. He had
to bring shed blood. He had to show there was the
sacrifice of being made. And it sets before the people
then the glory of the Messiah. And today we can glory in that
truth that the Saviour did come. It wasn't in those days just
as a figure. It is now a fact. And we know
the Lord Jesus did come. because of his shed blood, he
was able to enter into the holy place in glory. Now, it's so
significant, it's wonderful to meditate on these things, because
when the Saviour died, you see, prior to that, the High Priest
had to go through that veil. There was no other entrance.
Through that veil, part of the veil, and to go into the holy
place with the incense and the blood, and to be able to pray
for the forgiveness of the sins of the church. Well, that was
right until the very moment when the Lord Jesus Christ finished
his work upon that cross at Calvary. And you may remember what words
they were he spoke, so significant. He said, it is finished. His work was finished. There
was no need, therefore, any more of the holy place. Where was
the mercy seat? And to evidence the truth of
that, we read, the veil across that place was rent in twain
from the top to the bottom. And again, that's a wonderful
picture because we see that God actually tore that veil so that
there was no need for anything more because the way into the
holy place was now through the blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so we have here this picture.
He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. being made so much better than
the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name
than they. Can we not see something of the
glory of Christ in this wonderful work that was performed, and
how necessary it was, wasn't it? Because without that great
work, there would be no hope for you and me today. But can
we not bless God that we have today such a saviour, a glorious
Saviour who gave His life in order to purge our sins, to take
our sins away so that by His grace one day we shall be found
in glory with Him, praising Him for all that He's done, for saving
our souls, for taking away our sins, every sin. Never think
you're not a very big sinner. Never think your sins aren't
very bad. Because one sin will keep you out of heaven. One sin. No one here today can possibly
say they have never sinned. So we need a saviour. We need
a great and glorious saviour. And therefore how these words
are true, aren't they? That we must not neglect so great salvation
We must never think it's not very important, must never consider
it to be irrelevant, but to constantly rejoice and meditate upon this
great and glorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ. How important
it is that we are found living nearer to God and not nearer
to the world. Don't forget, the devil wants
you to live nearer to the world. He'll make all manner of excuses
why you should just do this and just do that. And what happens? You run out of time. And you
find you've wasted time when you could have been searching
the scriptures, you could have been praying, you could have
been meditating on the great truths of God. And so, let us
not forget, we have this great enemy of our souls. Therefore,
says the Apostle, we ought to give the more earnest heed to
the things which we have heard, lest at any time we shall let
them slip. There are many people, of course,
who have not had the privilege of hearing the great truths of
God. But we have all had the great
privilege of hearing the truths of God. So, the solemn truth
is that We don't have any excuse, do we? We are without excuse. We should never be able to stand
before that great white throne on the Day of Judgement and say,
well, of course I never heard these things. We've all heard
these great and glorious truths and we should thank God for them.
And pray that they may be made a real blessing to us. We're told, for unto which of
the angels said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee. Again, just pause and think of
the occasions when the father came and said to his son, what
on this earth? And it was heard by the people,
thou art my son. Almighty God deigns to give the
church of God this wonderful evidence. that the Lord Jesus
Christ was the only begotten Son of the Father. And here we're
reminded of this great and blessed truth. Thou art my Son. This day have I begotten thee,
and again I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he bringeth in
the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels
of God worship him. And to the angels he saith, who
maketh his angels spirits? And his ministers a flame of
fire. But unto the sun he saith, thy throne, O God, is for ever
and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. So let's remember that this is
an eternal situation. Hard for us to appreciate, isn't
it? but to think that there is no time. When we die, we've ceased
being in time. We then go into that eternal
scene, no end, no end. What a blessing then if we are
favoured to realise that we worship this great and blessed God and
to meditate on the wonder of it, To think that there will
never be an end to glory. Likewise, there will never be
an end to hell. But if we are amongst those who
are taught by the Spirit, we can look forward to that great
and glorious time of glory with the Saviour. And so we're told,
Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore
God, even thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellows, and thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid
the foundation of the earth." Another confirmation, isn't it?
That it was God that created all things in the beginning. There was a beginning of time. There was not a beginning of
eternity, but there was a beginning of time. And so here we have
this great truth, and thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the
foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of
thy hands." Again, just look up on a starry night to see the
glory of the heavens and to see the vastness of it. And what
is man proving today? Man is proving today how much
larger the heavens were. are rather, how much larger the
heavens are today. Well, the Lord God created them. Man cannot possibly visualize
the greatness of such a God who made all these stars, all these
planets, all these galaxies, right throughout space. Of course,
space has again no end. This is the great God. that we
fall before. This is the great God that you
and I are privileged to worship. This is the great God that you
and I can come to in prayer. This is the great God that we
can cast all our burdens upon. This is the great God who has
gone to prepare a place for his church. This God who created
all things and now Lord in the beginning has laid the foundation
of the earth and the heavens are the work of thine hands.
And he tells us People don't like to recognise this. They
shall perish, they shall perish, but thou remainest. And they
all shall wax old as does a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold
them up. And they shall be changed, but
thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. We have this
eternal God and this statement that one day, of course, all
these things that we are familiar with will be no longer. They will be burnt up and they
will all perish. Everything that man thinks of
as great and wonderful will all vanish away. But there will be
a greater wonder. and that will be glory for the
Church of God. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard
the things that the Lord hath prepared for those that love
him. Surely this is a great wonder,
isn't it? To meditate on and to think of
these words here that we ought to give, therefore, the more
earnest heed to the things we have heard. lest at any time
we should let them slip. These are the great soul truths
that you and I should be so thankful to know about and to think upon. And it puts things, doesn't it,
in a right perspective. Because we can often be very
affected by the things which occur in our lives. Trials, difficulties,
Temptations, oppositions, hardness. That's why Paul told Timothy
to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The
life of the Christian is not easy. It never has been, never
will be. But there is an inheritance. There is a glory which will come
when we leave this earth. And indeed when all these things
are burnt up, And as a vesture thou shalt fold them up, and
they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years shall
not fail. And to the witch of the angels
said he, at any time sit on my right hand, until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. Are they not all ministering
spirits? Sent forth a minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation." So what has the Apostle set before us really in this
first chapter? If I asked you, what are you
going to describe, that which the Apostle has set before us
in this chapter? Well, I hope you would come to
this conclusion. The greatness of God. The greatness of God. The mercy of God. The love of
God. The favour of God. That's not
set before us. The wonder. of God and his glorious
plan of salvation for sinful men. We have to recognise that God
is a jealous God. And these things have been brought
to pass so that fallen man, sinful man, will not be able to praise
himself. but will desire and be able to
praise his God. And so we can see the wonder
of this plan of salvation, to bring the people of God to praise
him, and indeed to be able to say, yes, the Lord is worthy. He is worthy of all honor and
all praise. And how necessary it is, John,
he wrote in his Revelation, in the fourth chapter, he tells
us, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and
power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure
they are and were created. Let's not lose sight. of such
a truth as that. And just going back into the
Old Testament and thinking how Solomon in his day was able to
give this picture of the great truths of God and the importance
that we should again think of in the fourth chapter of Proverbs.
And he tells us this when Solomon was speaking, he says, My son,
attend to my words. Incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let's not then think that perhaps
our meeting together this morning is of no relevance. It is very
important. And we should be so thankful
that we are able to come together to worship the Lord. And so he
gives us these words, attend to my words, incline an ear unto
my sayings. He goes on, let them not depart
from thine eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart. You may
remember, and I do refer to it sometimes in Deuteronomy, the
sixth chapter, the sixth verse, et cetera, where Moses is recording
that which he desires Israel might keep. And he desires that
the Israelites might have the great truths that he is expanding
to them before their eyes. And they may often speak about
them day by day. When they wake up, when they
go for a walk, when they meet with their neighbours, whatever
it is, they may speak about the things of God. And so here we
have such a truth, let them not depart from thine eyes, keep
them in the midst of thine heart, for they are life unto those
that find them, and health to all their flesh. So if by the
grace of God we have found these things, then are they the true
life to our souls? Do we really rejoice in them,
the great plan of salvation? And the Apostle goes on, we'll
just make just one verse, keep thy heart with all diligence
for out of it are the issues of life. Again how important
isn't it for us to be diligent in the things of God. That's
one of the great issues I expect we face today, the lack of diligence
in these things. Well, says the Apostle, Therefore
we ought to give the more earnest heed, not a little, the more
earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest at any times
we should let them slip. And then the Apostle Peter also
in his second epistle gives us some words of similar instructions. And he tells us in the second
epistle, the first chapter in the twelfth verse, wherefore,
similar statement to this, therefore, wherefore I will not be negligent
to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know
them, and be established in the present truth. Always in remembrance
of them. You see, he was aware that they
did know the truth, but he wanted them to constantly remember the
truths. And how good it is for us today
to recognise the truth. And Peter here in this second
epistle again, he really describes the greatness of God. How often
we ought to appreciate this. He says, according as his divine
power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life
and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to
glory and virtue, whereby given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption all that is in the world through
lust." And we could go on, but we won't. But that's a very instructive
few verses in that second epistle of Peter. And so we have this
word before us this morning, that we ought, therefore, with
all these great and important truths, and no doubt we're familiar
with them. But how good it would be if such
a Word as this latches onto us and holds us fast and enables
us to truly concentrate on the great things of God. Surely it's a very clear instruction,
isn't it? We ought. That's what the Word
of God tells us. We ought. We ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at
any time we should let them slip. Well, I'll be thankful this morning
that the Lord in his great mercy and love to our souls has directed
us to such a word as this, which of course is so broad and so
comprehensive, but it should direct us to the whole counsel
of God. Oh, what a field that is, isn't
it? To explore to meditate upon, to think of his sovereign grace,
of his wonderful love, of his infinite mercy. They're great
truths, aren't they? May we therefore be able to concentrate
on these things day by day, week by week, month by month, year
by year, and never be far from us. These are things which are
eternal. These are things which are a
blessing to our soul. These are things which will really
do us good. Therefore, we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at
any time we should let them slip. Amen.