The following sermon was delivered
on Sunday morning, March 10, 2002, at the Trinity Baptist
Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I encourage you to follow
with me in your Bibles as I read two portions from the Epistle
to the Hebrews, or really three portions, First
of all, Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, and then chapter
2, verses 1 through 4, and then chapter 3, verses 7 through 12. Hebrews 1, 1 through 3. God, having of old times spoken
unto the fathers in the prophets by diverse portions and in diverse
manners, has at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son,
whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he
made the worlds, who, being the effulgence of his glory, and
the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had made purification of sins, sat
down on the right hand of the majesty on high." Chapter 2,
verse 1. Therefore, we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest perhaps
we drift away from them. For if the word spoken through
angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedient
received a just recompense of reward, How shall we escape,
if we neglect so great a salvation, which, having at the first been
spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that
heard, God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and
wonders, and manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit,
according to his own will? verses 7 through 12. Wherefore,
even as the Holy Spirit saith, Today, if ye shall hear his voice,
harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, like as in the
day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by
proving me, and saw my works forty years Wherefore, I was
displeased with this generation, and said, They do always err
in their heart, but they did not know my ways. As I swore
in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren,
lest perhaps there should be in any one of you an evil heart
of unbelief in falling away from the living God. Now let us again
pray and ask for the help of God as we come to the study of
his word. Our Father, as we have sought
to engage our minds and hearts in beholding your glory as reflected
in the Lord Jesus, so we now come again conscious of our need
of the Spirit's ministry if we are rightly to understand your
mind as revealed in the Scriptures. And so we pray that the Holy
Spirit will be given to preacher and listener alike, that together
we may be conscious that you are here, answering the prayers
that have been couched in the language of the hymn we have
just sung. Lord Jesus, light of the world,
illumine darkened minds. Lord Jesus, set captives free. Lord Jesus, reclaim wandering
souls. Lord Jesus, be present to minister
in power to every heart. For your name's sake we plead. Amen. On the second Lord's Day of last
month, I began a series of messages that I entitled the blessings
and privileges along with the dangers and liabilities of the
second generation. I began by identifying what I
meant by the descriptive term, the second generation. I was
referring to those young men and women and children who have
never known any other major molding influence but that of their parents
and of this church. Parents who themselves have been
nurtured on the ministry of the Word of God in this place, some
for decades, and a church that with all of its sins and faults
has sought to carry out a radically biblical ministry. That is, radical
in that it is sought to take seriously the word of God on
whatever that word addresses concerning individual and corporate
life. As such, the second generation
has had, as it were, handed to it many things which the first
generation had desperately to wrestle for. things that some
in the letter that was sent to me by someone of the first generation
for years desperately sought and did not find in her particular
church experience and reflecting on the fact that her daughter
had this as it were as a birthright and seeing the differing responses
wondered as I began this series if indeed This was not a more
widespread experience, and it was a confirmation to my own
mind that this was indeed a timely word. Because in recent days,
the majority of the applications for baptism and church membership
have come from this second generation, in some cases, to be more accurate,
third generation. And it's crucial for us to think
through what are the peculiar blessings and advantages of this
set of circumstances, and what, if any, are the peculiar liabilities
and dangers. I then proceeded to identify
what I believe are the major privileges of being part of the
second generation. And I put them under two major
categories. I said you of the second generation
have been sovereignly and graciously surrounded with the God-appointed
means of saving grace from your infancy. You've been graciously
and sovereignly surrounded with the God-appointed means of saving
grace. the knowledge of the scriptures,
the example and influence of authentic Christians, the clear,
biblical proclamation of the gospel, and the earnest, persevering
prayers of your parents and the people of God. And then the second
major category of your blessing and privilege I describe this
way. You of the second generation
have been lovingly and carefully nurtured in a biblically-framed,
total character-molding context. You have been molded in a character-molding
context that has had as its framework of reference the very pattern
within which our Lord Jesus was nurtured, as it is described
in Luke 2, 51 and 52. Having then identified these
two major categories of the blessings and advantages of the second
generation, I then began to identify the peculiar liabilities and
dangers arising from that first category of blessing. That category
of being sovereignly and graciously surrounded with the God-appointed
means of saving grace has its own peculiar dangers and liabilities. And I had time before my torn
retinas put me out of commission for two Lord's Days to identify
two of these liabilities and dangers. I said, you of the second
generation will be especially susceptible to agonizing struggles
with the assurance of your salvation. I did not say you must of necessity
experience agonizing struggles with assurance, but I did say
you will be especially susceptible to such agonizing struggles.
And I've been encouraged with the feedback, different ones
of the second generation saying, how did Pastor Martin get inside
my heart and inside my mind? Well, I got inside of it because
you've gotten outside of it enough to share with me, many of you,
your struggles in this area over the years. And then secondly,
you of the second generation will be especially susceptible
to the damning delusion of presumption concerning your salvation. And
we identified that kind of spiritual presumption and why being surrounded
with the God-appointed means of saving grace can leave one
peculiarly vulnerable to this damning sin of presuming that
all is well. when in reality there is no real
vital attachment to Christ, no real love for the law and ways
of Christ, no real love for the people of Christ, all of those
things that are according to the scripture the undeniable
marks of true saving grace. Now we come this morning to take
up a third major liability connected with the privileges of being
surrounded with the God-appointed means of saving grace from the
cradle. And I'm describing it this way.
You of the second or third generation are especially susceptible to
the danger of neglect and hardness of heart with respect to your
salvation. You of the second or third generation
are especially susceptible to what I really should call the
soul-destroying danger, to the danger of neglect and hardness
of heart with respect to your salvation. In addressing this
matter, we'll consider the truth under these three simple headings,
the danger identified, spending the majority of our time there,
the danger avoided, and thirdly, the danger ignored. First of
all then, the danger identified. According to the teaching of
the Bible, and observable human experience, There are some sins
that all men, that includes boys and girls, young and old, all
men is generic of all human beings, according to the Bible and observable
human experience, there are some sins that all men at all times
and in all places are capable of committing. Some sins that
all men at all times in all places are capable of committing. all
ages, all sociological and economic, political backgrounds and contexts. Such passages as Mark chapter
7 describe those kinds of sins. When our Lord Jesus is seeking
to strip away the self-deception of the Pharisees who thought
that defilement was an external matter, he says, no, defilement
is something that has its origin in the heart. And in Mark 7,
20, he says, that which proceeds out of the man, that defiles
the man. For from within, out of the heart
of men, all men, including women, young men, old men, old women,
young women, boys, girls, from within, out of the heart of men,
evil thoughts proceed. fornications, thefts, murders,
adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil
eye, railing, pride, foolishness, all these evil things proceed
from within and defile the man. These are sins that are in the
heart of all of us by nature. Every human heart is like a cesspool
that has the pressure of an artesian well. That's what your heart
is. That's what my heart is. Were
we to penetrate the most remote jungle somewhere in the depths
of a Brazilian forest and find people utterly isolated from
modern society and technology, this we would know. There we
would find human hearts that were cesspools of every one of
these sins. inward pressure spilling out
in the mouth and in the hands, the eyes, in the attitudes and
dispositions. It's because this is what fallen
human nature is. And all men, in all places, at
all times, and in all circumstances, are capable of the defilement
of these sins, for they come from within, out of the heart. Or similarly, we could take Galatians
chapter 5. where the Apostle says that the
works of the flesh are manifested. Flesh is Adamic human nature,
untouched and untransformed by the power of God through the
Spirit and union with Christ. That's what flesh is. And Paul
writes in Galatians 5.19, the works of the flesh are manifest,
which are these. fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousies, wrath, factions,
divisions, partings, endings, drunkenness, revelings, and such
like, of which I did forewarn you as I did forewarn you that
they who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. All men, at all times, in all
places and circumstances are capable of these sins. Why? Because
they are consistent with unblessed, untransformed, Adamic human nature. You don't need to see a bad example
to do these things. You have an internal teacher
called the flesh. But, but, there are some other
sins that only some men, in some places, in some peculiar circumstances,
are capable of committing. Does that surprise you when I
say that? There are some sins that only some men, that is,
some men and women, some boys and girls, in some circumstances
are capable of committing. And among such sins are the sins
of neglecting one's salvation and hardening one's heart concerning
one's salvation. These two sins can only be committed
by those who are exposed to the God-appointed means of saving
grace. only such as are exposed to the
means of saving grace can be guilty of the sin of neglecting
salvation and hardening their hearts to salvation. And I want to demonstrate this
from two pivotal texts in the book of Hebrews. The first, Hebrews
chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. And this is
why I say, you of the second generation, you who have been
surrounded with the means of saving grace from your infancy,
you can commit a sin that millions on the face of the earth cannot
commit today. You can commit it. They cannot. You can. Hebrews chapter 2. In the passage, people are addressed
who've heard something. Look at the opening words. Therefore,
we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were
heard. The people addressed have heard
something. And what is it that they have
heard? Well, they have heard that which
is called in verse 3 the message of God's so great salvation. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation which having at the first been spoken? What they heard is that which
was spoken. And what was spoken is described
by the writer to the Hebrews as so great a salvation. What they heard was God's message
concerning how, in Jesus Christ, God has dealt with the problem
of human sin. how in Jesus Christ God has procured
a way whereby sinners may be delivered from the guilt, the
power, and the consequences of their sin through the appointed
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is called so great a
salvation. The modifying word is the one
used by James when he's speaking of how the little tongue has
such great influence and he's drawing parallels. He says, so
great a ship is turned by a little rudder. What is the so great
a ship? A vast ocean-going ship is so
great a ship. It's not a little skit. It's
so great. And in the book of the Revelation,
where there is a description of an earthquake the likes of
which was never experienced in all of human history. It is called
so great an earthquake when God would set it apart from all others. So this is not some little piddling
salvation. This is a massive, so great,
a magnificent salvation. A salvation which the writer
to the Hebrews says has come to us in God's final word to
human beings in the person and work of His own beloved Son. His Son, who is greater than
the angels, His Son, whom He will show in the unfolding elements
of the book of Hebrews, is greater than the Aaronic priesthood,
whose sacrifice is greater than all of the Levitical sacrifices. All of this magnificent salvation,
it is that concerning which these have heard. We ought to give
the more earnest heed to the things that were heard. And what
was heard was the message of this so great salvation. And once that salvation has been
spoken in our ears, what is the peculiar sin that only gospel
hearers can commit? Well, it's described in two ways
in this passage, and I want you to look at it. First of all,
it's described in terms of drifting, and then it's described in terms
of neglecting. Verse 1, Therefore we ought to
give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest
happily, that's an old English way of trying to express the
subjunctive mood, the mood of possibility. When the verb is
put in the subjunctive, it is not an indicative this happened
or a future this will happen, but it is in terms of this may
happen. The mood of possibility is the
subjunctive, lest perhaps we drift away from them. Give the more earnest heed to
the things we heard, lest we drift away from them. Now the verb translated dripped
away is found only here in the New Testament. But when we turn
to secular Greek writers, it's interesting to find the various
ways it is used. And here I quote from Reinacher
and Rogers, who have a very helpful summary of these various ways.
The word was used to describe a river that flows by a place
or flows aside from its normal channel in the sense of flooding
or escaping its channel. When it escapes its ordinary
channel, it has drifted beyond its normal course. Again, this
word was used of something slipping from one's memory. Oh, it slipped
my memory. It floated out of the realm of
my ability to bring it into cognitive focus. It slipped my mind. Again, it was used to describe
what would happen when a ring would slip from someone's finger. It wasn't thrown off, it wasn't
wrenched off, it just slipped off. Gravity did its work. Inadvertently, the ring slipped
off. It was also used to indicate
a ship drifting away beyond its proper place of mooring. And
because it is used in the passive, it's not that someone is consciously
actively engaging in drifting, they are being carried along
in an activity of drifting. We ought to give the more earnest
heed to the things that were heard, lest, happily, we are
carried along and away from them. You see, the picture is not of
someone who, having heard, says, I don't buy that stuff. This
salvation stuff, I don't believe we're sinners. I don't believe
our condition is such that we need an incarnate deity to be
the savior, that we need a sacrifice of an innocent victim upon the
cross, who under the Syrian sky is inundated with the wrath of
God against human sin. I don't believe in this kind
of salvation. No, no, no, no. He says we ought
to give the more earnest heed to the things that we heard lest
we just are carried along by them and never are anchored to
them or brought into rest in the privileges held out in the
gospel. Adrifting by them, never being
anchored to them, not openly denying them, not blaspheming
them, being surrounded with the God-appointed means of grace,
all of which are pointing us to the reality of so great a
salvation in Jesus Christ, urging us to lay hold of Christ, urging
us to flee to Christ, urging us to cast the weight of our
souls upon Christ. And what is done? The writer
to the Hebrews envisions people who simply drift on by the things
that have been heard, and the so great salvation encompassed
in those things. And then he describes it further
on in the passage as neglecting. Look at verse 3. How shall we
escape if we neglect so great a salvation? A very benign word. What is neglecting something?
It's just failure to pay close attention to something. When
a man neglects his wife, what does he do? Doesn't mean he beats
her. Doesn't mean he shuts her up in a room for days. It doesn't
mean that he starves her. He's just insensitive to her
emotional needs, insensitive to her need for communication,
insensitive to her need for a little respite from the grind of the
domestic pressure of three small kids and all of the responsibilities
of giving herself to the role of a mother. To neglect her is
simply not to pay careful attention to her. And this is the very
word used in precisely the same construction. It's a participle
of exactly the same construction in Matthew chapter 22. It's the
most vivid illustration of what it means to neglect. In Matthew
22, Jesus gives the parable of a wedding feast. And the king
who has thrown this wedding feast for his son. In verse 4 we read,
And he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them that are bidden,
behold, I've made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fattling are killed
and all things are ready. Come to the marriage feast. Verse
5. But they neglected it. You have a translation that probably
says they made light of it. But it's exactly the same verb,
in a participle form, in exactly the same construction. They neglected
it. They made light of it. And how
did they manifest their neglect? And went their ways. one to his
own farm, another to his merchandise, etc. You see, they didn't say,
hey, wait a minute, you guys, you're telling me that the king
has made a feast and that I'm welcome to come to the feast,
I don't need to buy a ticket, I don't need to buy a raffle
ticket, you mean there's a feast prepared and I can enjoy all
of the king's provisions simply by coming? I don't believe the
king exists! I don't believe there's any feast. I don't believe
the terms of your invitation are sincere. No, they didn't
deny a thing. They believed there was a king.
They believed there was a feast. They believed they were welcome.
They simply neglected the invitation. They simply neglected it. They
made light of it. They simply neglected it. And the writer to Hebrews says,
how shall we escape if we neglect? so great a salvation. Now who
can neglect salvation? Only those who have heard of
that so great a salvation. This is a sin that only those
who are exposed to the saving means of grace can commit. those
who have never heard of God's so great salvation. In the imagery
of Matthew 22, those who have never heard that the King of
the universe so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, and that in Christ a gospel feast is spread of forgiveness,
and pardon, and reconciliation with God, and the gift of the
Spirit, and the promise of eternal life, and the resurrection of
the body, and all of the blessings of salvation. Only those who
have heard of so great a salvation can neglect it. And so the writer
to the Hebrews says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
a salvation? And so I say that one of the
great dangers of the second generation, surrounded from infancy with
those God-appointed means of saving grace, declaring continually
the reality of the great salvation that is in Jesus Christ, you
can drift on by it. Never anchoring your soul to
it in conscious, deliberate actings of faith. You can simply neglect
it. Pay no careful attention to it. and give your mind and your energies
to other things legitimate in themselves as did these who were
invited to the wedding feast. In their neglect, one went his
way to his farm and another to his merchandise. They didn't
go into the business of cranking out pamphlets to prove the king
didn't exist. cranking out treatises as to
why they believed that the whole idea of a banquet feast was a
sham. No, they did nothing to deny
the realities that were set before them. They simply neglected it. Simply neglected it. And that's
the frightening danger that every one of you children and young
people faces. Drifting by and neglecting. But then there's a second thing,
that only you who are surrounded with these saving means or means
of saving grace, a sin that only you can commit, and that is the
sin of hardening your heart. In Psalm 95, verses 7 to 11, the psalmist writes words that
are picked up and quoted no fewer in various parts of it, four
times in the book of Hebrews, it's a critical passage. Here
in Psalm 95, it begins with this ringing summons to make a joyful
noise to the rock of our salvation, one of the most passionate invitations
to worship. The contrast is such that liberal
commentators say that This last part of the psalm never even
belonged here. This is somebody doing a poor
mix-and-match job and patching in something totally irrelevant.
But we don't hold such a loose view of the Word of God. But
from that ringing, exuberant, passionate invitation to worship
God in all of His greatness and glory, then we have these words
beginning in verse 7, For He is our God. We are the people
of His pastor and the sheep of His hand today. Oh, that you
would hear his voice, harden not your heart." And then references
made to incidents in the life of the children of Israel in
their wilderness wandering, as in Meribah, as in the day of
Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved
me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I aggrieved
with that generation, and said, it is the people that err in
their hearts, and they have not known my ways. Wherefore, I swore
in my wrath, They should not enter into my rest. In other
words, God said, because of your indifference to my voice and
your unbelief in the face of my voice, you'll not enter Canaan.
Rest was Canaan. You remember that whole generation
died in the wilderness. Only two of that generation entered
the promised land, Joshua and Caleb. All the others died. And
if all we had was Psalm 95, we'd think that's all it was speaking
about. But under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the writer
to the Hebrews, takes up that very portion of Psalm 95 and
in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4, no fewer than four times he references
this Psalm in conjunction with this issue. The rest to which
Psalm 95 points is the rest ultimately, not of Canaan, but of heaven,
a rest into which we come when we lay hold in faith of the promises
of God in the so great salvation offered to us in the Gospel,
so that He thoroughly Gospelizes that portion from Psalm 95. I
want you to see that now as we turn to Hebrews chapter 3. Having set forth the greatness
of Christ greater than Moses, the great apostle and high priest
of our confession, he then says in verse 7, Wherefore, as the
Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, harden not your
heart as in the provocation, like as in the day of trial in
the wilderness. And then he quotes almost entirely
that section from Psalm 95. Then again, he comes down in
verse 15, while it is said today, if you shall hear his voice,
harden not your heart, as in the provocation. For who, when
they heard, did provoke? Nay, did not all those that came
out of Egypt by Moses? And with whom was he displeased
forty years? Was it not with them that sinned,
whose bodies fell in the wilderness? To whom he swore they should
not enter his rest, but them that were disobedient. And we
see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.
Let us fear therefore. lest the promise being left of
entering into his rest, any one of you should seem to come short
of it. Now notice, for indeed we have
good tidings. We have a gospel preached unto
us. even as they did, but the word
of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by
faith with them that heard. For we who have believed do enter
into that rest. Even as it is said, as I swore
in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest." You see what he's
doing? He's saying that there is a parallel between unbelief
that shut them out from the rest of entering the land of Canaan,
and the unbelief that shuts us out from all of the rest promised
in the gospel, rest from the wrath of God, from bondage to
sin, and eventually the eternal rest of the heavenly Canaan. And in that particular setting,
no fewer than five times is the word today highlighted, so that
the constant emphasis is when we confront the announcement
of God's gospel rest, when we hear of this so great salvation,
that becomes our today. And whenever we have a today
of gospel opportunity, we either believe or we harden our hearts. And that's the truth I pray God
will bring home with power to many of your hearts this morning.
Look at that close conjunction. Verse 7 of Hebrews 3, Today if
you hear, harden not. And again, verse 15, Today if
you hear, harden not. Verse 7 of chapter 4, again he
defines a certain day, today, saying in David, so long a time
afterward, even as he said before, today, if you hear his voice,
harden not your heart. What brings hardness of heart
in this context? It is being surrounded with the
announcement of God's gospel provisions in Christ, and responding
with anything less than immediate, wholehearted trust in the promises
of God. Today, if you hear, hard enough
O God, how do I avoid the hardening? I embrace the word of faith that
is preached unto me. I embrace in faith the announcement
of God's provision and the overtures of His mercy in the Lord Jesus. So every time you of the second
generation, and you who just may have stumbled in here, strange
visitors, whenever, whenever God's great salvation is announced,
that becomes today for you. And when it is a gospel today,
God says don't harden your heart. Don't harden your heart. And
how do you harden your heart? By saying not today. God says
this is the day of salvation. Today, if you hear His voice. Today, if you hear His voice,
harden not. Today, if you hear, embrace,
mixed with faith, that gospel word that is proclaimed to you,
even in this place today. This is the soul-destroying sin
of neglect and hardness of heart. which only those who are exposed
to the saving means of grace can commit. So we've identified
the danger from these two key passages. Hebrews 2 is described
in a two-fold way, drifting on by and neglecting. In Hebrews
3 and 4, hardening of the heart. Having identified the danger,
now secondly and more briefly, the danger avoided. How and in
what way are we to avoid this danger? You kids, how can you
avoid the horrible danger of just drifting on by that gospel
haven in which you should be anchored for the safety of your
soul? How can you avoid the hardening
of the heart? Well, let's look at these passages.
They give the answer. How do we avoid the danger of
drifting and neglect with respect to salvation? Hebrews 2 and verse
1. Therefore, we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things that were heard. The key to the
answer of the word of God to that question, how can I avoid
I have not chosen to be surrounded from my birth with the means
of God's saving mercy and with the word and promise of so great
a salvation. How can I avoid the drifting
by and the neglect and the hardness of heart concerning which God
warns? This passage says you avoid the
drifting and the neglect by first of all recognizing that you have
a solemn, divinely imposed obligation to do something. Look at the
text. Therefore we ought. And the Greek
word translated ought is that little particle of necessity.
It speaks of solemn, unmistakable obligation. And you and I will
not take seriously avoiding the sins of drifting by and neglecting
and hardness of heart until we first of all recognize God has
laid a solemn obligation upon me if he has brought to me the
announcement of gospel privileges, if he has sovereignly and graciously
surrounded me with the means of saving grace, he has also
laid upon me, not asking for my consent, a solemn obligation
to do something. Now every one of you kids needs
to face this reality. You presently sit under a solemn
obligation to do something with respect to those marvelous privileges
with which God has surrounded you. You haven't asked for love
any more than you asked for the privileges. You haven't asked
for the obligation God sovereignly and graciously gave the privileges.
He sovereignly lays upon you an obligation. an obligation
to do something. And what is it that you are to
do? Look at the text. Therefore we ought, we are under
solemn, sovereignly imposed obligation to give the more earnest heed
to the things that were heard. That obligation is to pay earnest
and careful attention to the gospel. Give the more earnest
heed. That is, consciously, deliberately,
decidedly say, I am no longer going to just treat these things
like tomorrow morning's news. I am going to start taking steps
to think seriously concerning the things that I've heard in
the gospel preaching I've heard from my mom and dad. In the gospel
instruction I've received from my Sunday school teacher, in
the gospel preaching I've heard in church and in school, I have
been told again and again that the great issues of life are
rooted in the fact that God is Almighty Creator, Lawgiver and
Judge. I am His creature accountable
to Him and I haven't given five minutes serious thought to that
reality. I'm going to stop this nonsense
and I'm going to start giving earnest heed to the fact that
God is God, He is holy, He is judged, I am His creature, and
I'm going to stand before Him in judgment. I'm going to stop
fooling around and start giving earnest heed to the things I've
heard. I've heard in the Word of the
Gospel that God so loved the world in all of its sin and wretchedness
and rebellion that He gave His only begotten Son, that in Bethlehem's
manger is in fleshed deity, God becomes a baby in the person
of Jesus of Nazareth, that in that person God is demonstrating
the infinite depth and breadth of His love, parting with His
own beloved Son to come to this sin-cursed world, to expose Himself
to its vileness. eventually to have the spittle
of men drip from his face, to be buffeted and bruised, to go
into a garden where the issues of the gospel are of such moment
that when Jesus wrestles with them, blood drops burst from
his capillaries. Sin is so real. God is so real. Judgment against sin is so real
that the Son of God sweats, as it were, great drops of blood.
I'm going to stop treating that like a bunch of nonsense. I'm
going to start paying heed to that. I'm going to start asking,
what was there in my sin that forced drops of blood from the
holy brow of Jesus? And I'm going to take seriously
the fact that when he went off and was judged, he said, don't
you think that I could call upon my father and he send twelve
legions of angels to deliver me? Why does he submit himself
to all of the brutal treatment of the soldiers and the taunting
mobs and then allow himself to be impaled on a cross and then
darkness covers the land for three hours? And he cries out,
my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? I'm going to stop
treating that like a bunch of nonsense. I'm going to start
giving close attention to that stuff. There's stuff that God
says I need to give careful attention to. That's what some of you have
never done. No, you don't deny it, you don't
mock it, you don't deny it and try to overturn it, but you don't
give serious attention to it. And God says you've got to do
it. You've got to do it. We ought to give the more earnest
heed to the things that we have heard, lest we drift on by them. What will cause you to just drift
on by them? Just don't give any serious thought
to them. That's all. Go home today like you have many
other Lord's Days. After your Sunday school teacher
and your pastors have poured their guts out, laid their hearts
out, eat your meal, go back to your room, do your crossword
puzzles, read some banal book, pick up a novel, never give any
thought to it. That's exactly the way You'll
drift on by and harden your heart and end up in hell. Just do what
you've done every other Lord's Day for months and for years
some of you. God says you must give the more
earnest heed to the things you've heard. Go home today! and say, I'm going to get my
Bible out, and I'm going to read about the crucifixion, and I'm
going to pray, Oh Jesus, show me why you had to die so horrible
a death. And I'm going to take passages
in the book of Revelation. I'm going to read about hell,
where the worm dies not, and the fire is never quenched, and
the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. And I'm
going to take seriously, Lord, that's where I'm going. If I'm
not saved, if I'm not forgiven, if I'm not cleansed, I'm going
to give earnest heed to the things I've heard from my very mama's
breast. I'm going to stop fiddling and
saddling and trifling in these great and glorious issues. That's how you avoid the sin
of drifting on by, neglecting, hardening your heart. You do
so by paying earnest and careful attention to the gospel. For
you adults John Owen beautifully says, this means for us that
we contemplate the author of the gospel, the matter of the
gospel, the weight of the gospel, and the ends of the gospel. We
start taking seriously all of these things bound up in the
gospel. God, sin, death, hell, judgment,
atonement, resurrection, the Holy Spirit, these are the things
in this so great salvation. And mom and daddy can't pay close
attention to them for you. I can't pay close attention to
them for you. I can do all within my power,
preparing, pleading, throwing myself into the preaching of
the word, crying out, Oh God, may your word fasten itself.
But at the end of the day, you got to do what it says. You are
under solemn obligation to give more earnest heed to the things
that you have heard. You will not let another Lord's
Day pass in lightness, in provolity. You will determine if it means
you've got to stand against your siblings. You're going to do
it. But this Lord's Day, God's given me one day in seven when
I can legitimately put my books aside, my ordinary entertainments
and recreations aside, because God knows I've got a never-dying
soul. And He loves me enough to mark
out one day in seven that I can, with a good conscience, give
myself in a focused way to the concerns of my soul. And I'm
going to do it today. And how do you avoid the danger
of hardness of heart with respect to your salvation? I've emphasized
it already in all of these passages. The only way to be sure to avoid
a hardness of heart is in this gospel today. Embrace the message
in faith. Anything other then the response
of faith is a hardening of the heart. Today, today, if you hear
His voice, here's another gospel today. God hasn't cut you off
in your sin. He hasn't allowed you to be taken
off by your parents into some place where all you get is religious
falderal and ritual and no proclamation of the gospel. You're here. It's
another gospel today. Dear children, young people,
it's another gospel today. Today, if you hear His voice,
Don't harden your heart. Embrace the Savior. What is there
in Jesus that you wouldn't want to embrace? What is there in
his salvation that is not in your best interest? What is there
in the Christian life now and in the age to come that is not
desirable and delightful? Ah, yes, sure, you get a few
rubs along the way, a few people that think you're a kook and
a nut, but what a wonderful thing to put your head on your pillow
at night and know your sins are all forgiven. To know if your
heart stopped beating, all it does is shoot you up to heaven. That's a wonderful thing. Wonderful
thing. Wonderful thing. to have human
relationships marked by love and genuine concern rather than
mutual exploitation. You kids don't have a clue what
a zoo it is out there. You're in a context where you
can move among the men here at the church, you little girls,
and know that nobody's out to exploit you. You can feel safe
Men other than your daddy's hugging you, kidding with you, and you
know that their motives and desires are all pure. That's what this
salvation gives. Why wouldn't you want such a
salvation? Jesus, in all of his love and
grace and tenderness and power, offers himself to you. and all
of the benefits of his work, forgiveness of sin, breaking
the chains of your sin, giving you the gift of the Holy Spirit,
promising to raise you up with a resurrection body at the last
day. Why wouldn't you want a salvation
like this? Don't harden your heart. You
embrace the Lord Jesus. Say, Lord Jesus, the most stupid
thing in all the world is for me not to trust you. The most
stupid thing in the world is for me to go on with a load of
sins still on my back and haunting my conscience and the terrible,
terrible shadow of hell across my back. Lord Jesus, I'm done
with this nonsense. I want you to be my Savior. I
entrust myself to you. And then you just go on trusting
Him. Some of you have heard me say, I pray for you dear children.
that many of you will never know a time when you did not know
that you were a sinner and you did not trust Jesus as the Savior
of sinners. And nothing would thrill us more
than to have some of you in years to come come into a membership
interview and when we ask for your testimony to be able to
say, well, I don't have much of a testimony. All I know is
I've never known a time when I didn't know I was a horrible
sinner who ought to go to hell. I don't remember a time when
I didn't know that Jesus welcomed sinners like me. And I never
knew a time when I didn't trust Him. I tell you, some of us will
get up and dance around the room for joy. What's wrong with that? You say, well, I don't think
anything wrong with that. Well, why isn't it true of you? Why aren't
you trusting the Lord Jesus? You say, well, Pastor, that sounds
so simple. Yeah, I know it does. But He still says, Him that comes
to me, I'll in no wise cast out. Come unto me, and I will give
you rest. The only way to avoid hardness
of heart is when you have a gospel today. A gospel today. Today, if you hear His voice,
embrace the Savior in faith. That's the danger avoided. Now,
in conclusion, just three minutes. What happens if the danger is
ignored? What happens if we hear another
message, as you've heard today, and your privileges are set before
you, and your dangers are set before you, and how to avoid
them is set before you, and you ignore it? Now let's look back
at Hebrews chapter 2. Therefore we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest perhaps
we drift on by them. For, for, Are you tempted to
say, ah, I know I ought to give more earnest seed, but I got
other things to do. I know I ought not to drift on
by the moorings of the gospel for another day, but I got other
things to do. The writer to Hebrews says, look,
you better do this because if the words spoken through angels
prove steadfast, that's God's revelation through Moses, Angels
mediated the word of God to Moses, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward. How shall we escape if
we neglect so great a salvation? See, he has just proven that
Christ is greater than the angels. That's the whole thrust of Hebrews
chapter 1. verses 4 through the end of the
chapter. Christ is greater than the angels.
Now he says, now think with me, think with me. Here are these
angels. And when God mediated his word
through angels, and every word he spoke received a just recompense
of reward. If men disregarded his word through
angels, they were punished. All of them, none escaped. Along
comes Jesus, greater than the And God's final word is in Jesus,
God who spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets in
many ways, God who mediated His old covenant word through the
angels. Now, in Jesus, He has spoken His final word. And the
so great salvation is spoken by the Lord, confirmed by His
apostles, validated with their signs and wonders that they were
the true spokesmen of God. Now then, if the word through
angels proved steadfast, nobody escaped who disregarded it. What
will happen if you disregard the word through the greater
than the angels, Jesus? How shall we escape? If we neglect,
notice, neglect, not deny, blaspheme, reject as foolish, simply neglect. Make light of it. Don't take
it seriously. Don't regard it worthy of giving
more earnest heed. How shall we escape? if we neglect
so great salvation. Ignore the danger. And the word
of God is clear. You will receive the threatened
punishment. You will not enter the rest of
the promised salvation if you harden your heart. Chapter four
again. Let us fear. Let us be afraid. Let us be scared witless. lest perhaps a promise being
left of entering into His rest, any of you should come short
of it. You kids ought to leave here
scared to death that God's promise of grace and salvation is set
before you, and you walk away from it and don't lay it to yourself. Let us fear lest a promise being
left of entering into His rest, Any one of you should come short
of it. For indeed, we have had good tidings preached unto us,
as did they. But the word of hearing did not
profit them. It was not united by faith with
them that heard. Oh, today, if you hear His voice,
harden not your heart. Say, Lord Jesus, Much I don't
understand. It seems so simple. But one thing
I know. I know that I'm just the kind
of sinner you came to save. And I believe that you came from
heaven in order to die upon a cross to take the punishment due to
my sins. And Lord Jesus, I believe you
live that by your living grace and power you can break the chains
that bind me to my sins. You can make good all of your
promises and come to live in me by your Holy Spirit and give
me the power to live the life that is pleasing to you. Lord
Jesus, I no longer drift on by, that only place of safe haven. This day, Lord Jesus, by your
grace, by faith, I anchor myself to gospel promises and provisions. I no longer make light of the
invitation to come to the feast. No longer will I harden my heart,
for dear children, As we were reminded when Pastor McDiarmid
was here, it's God who says, remember now your Creator in
the days of your youth, before the evil days come, when you
will say, I have no pleasure in them. The most opportune time
is now. Here, today, if you hear, harden
up. Every time God gives you a gospel
today, and you don't embrace Christ, there is a layer of hardness
that goes over the heart. And each time, it gets a bit
easier the next time. Now this may gross some of you
out, but as I was fishing for an illustration with which to
close, this was the only one that came to mind. So a preacher's
got to go with what he's got. When I was a boy many years ago,
a young man, I worked summers as a laborer for a non-union
construction man. He was a plasterer and a mason.
And so all day long, my hands were handling rough concrete
block. In the building trades, you don't
say blocks, you say block. If you stay around the construction
man, pick up the blocks, he'll know you don't know anything
about it. It's block. No matter how many they are, you're picking
up the block and carrying brick and mixing brown coat. That shows how old I am, Jerry.
back when we put the old gypsum brown coat. So my hands were
continually in touch with rough, rough materials, continually
in touch with tools, so that over a period of time, I built
up huge calluses across this part of my hand. And when I wanted
to gross out my sisters, I'd take a big darning needle and
I'd go ramming it right through just where the callus was just
about joining the real. And I mean, it looked like I
was really doing damage to myself. I didn't feel anything, no blood.
Why? There's no vascularity in a callus.
No blood vessels and no nerves. Now I didn't get those calluses
the first day I went off to work. Usually the first couple of days
when I'd come home from college and go to work, I'd have running
blisters. I mean, my hands had gotten soft
sitting in the classroom and using the pen and not that kind
of work. But after a while, after a while,
the blisters of the area would heal and the callus would build
up and build up and build up until... I used to be proud of
my calluses and my ability to stick a big old needle through
my calluses and feel nothing. That's what happens to your heart.
Every time God gives you a gospel today, Every time mom and dad
entreat you to flee to Christ, every time your Sunday school
teacher, your pastors entreat you, every time the gospel is
proclaimed, Christ is set before you, and your urge to close with
the gospel and receive Christ, and you say, no, a little later,
a little later, a little later, a little later, a little later.
that you can come to adult years where you can hear the most simple,
clear, Christ-centered, passionate, earnest proclamation of the gospel,
and you don't feel anything. You feel nothing. There are some sitting here who
are living witnesses of the callous of the heart. You want to join the I pray not,
dear children, dear young people, I pray not. This is the third great danger
and liability of the second generation, the danger of the neglect and
the hardness of heart that only you can be guilty of, who have
had the privilege of being exposed to God-ordained means of saving
grace. May some of you mark this day
as the day when you say, enough is enough. By God's grace, this
day I will start taking earnest heed to the things that I've
heard. As best I know how, I'm going to Christ and I'm going
to keep going to Christ until I breathe my last! And then I'll
go to be with Him. as he promised. God granted it
will be so. And dear people of God, as I
wrestle with, well, Lord, I'm going fishing this morning. What
about your dear people? How will they be edified? Well,
if you can't be edified just thinking about the so great salvation
that is ours in Christ, something wrong with you, child of God.
We never outgrow the gospel. We grow up into the gospel. And
I trust that your heart is filled with a fresh gratitude to God.
that by his grace you did not drift on by, but your soul has
been anchored to Christ and to his gracious saving mercy, and
that God has enabled you not to harden your heart, but to
enter into gospel rest. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for
your word. We thank you for your presence
with us and how we earnestly plead with you this day that
you, by the Holy Spirit, will make that word effectual, that
there would be some who would mark this day as the day when
they began to lay hold of Christ, when they stopped making light
of gospel privileges. and began to give the more earnest
heed to the things that they have heard. We plead this for
the good of their souls and for the glory of Christ. Amen.