Wherefore lift up the hands which
hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your
feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but
let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and
holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any
man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing
up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any
fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of
meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward,
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected,
for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully
with tears. For ye are not come unto the
mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor
unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of
the trumpet, and the voice of the words, which voice they that
heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them
any more. for they could not endure that
which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
a mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart. And so terrible was the sight
that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and But ye are come unto Mount Zion,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly,
and to the church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel." see that ye refuse not him that
speaketh." I read to you there in the first
chapter of the book of John about the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. And God spake from heaven through
the Word. God speaks to us through the
Word, through Christ Jesus our Lord. And it says here, See that ye
refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refused
him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape
if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven." It means that we are to give
earnest heed and careful attention to him that speaks. Earnest heed
and careful attention. see that ye refuse not Him that
speaketh. For if they escape not who refused
Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then
shook the earth. But now he hath promised, saying,
Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more,
signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of
those things that are made, that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain. Wherefore we receive a kingdom
which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for
our God is a consuming fire." Verse 25, that ye refuse not him that speaketh."
And I've already said that that means give earnest heed and careful
attention. That by no means and in no way
we might refuse him that speaketh. That which Jesus Christ speaks
concerns my soul and it concerns your soul. And if that's true, then we ought
to give earnest heed and careful attention. And I've told you more times
than one that when God made us, he fashioned us out after the
dust of the earth, and he breathed into our nostrils the breath
of life. And we became a living soul. We became a living soul. Saved
soul or lost soul, the soul of man always exists. There is no doing away with a
man's soul. It is from everlasting to everlasting. from eternity to eternity. The
soul of man never perishes, is never really destroyed. The soul of man, the eternal
destiny of the soul of man, will wind up in one place or another. It will either be with God and
in His presence throughout all eternity, or it will be separated
from the presence of God throughout the endless ages. So when he says, See that ye
refuse not him that speaketh, I say unto you as best I can, that which Jesus
It concerns your soul and my soul. It concerns your everlasting
destiny. It is God's wisdom. It is God's
way of mercy. It is God's way of salvation,
that which He speaks. If it were a secondary matter,
a matter of less importance, then I would not bid you or even
myself to be too earnest about it, if it was a secondary matter. But it is a matter of vital importance. It is a matter that condescends
all other matters. It concerns your soul. Your soul. It concerns heaven and it concerns
hell. It concerns your everlasting
portion. See, he said, see that ye refuse
not him that speaketh. To refuse him. I read to you
in 1 John about the Word. The Word was with God and the
Word was God. And it says He came unto His
own, the Word. incarnated Word, Word made flesh,
that it came unto His own. That is, it came unto His own
nation. He was born a Jew, an Israelite,
indeed, where there is no God. He came unto the Jewish nation. came unto His own. But His own
would not have Him. They wouldn't have Him. They
refused Him that speaketh. They refused Him that cometh
from heaven. And men and women and boys and
girls have been refusing Him from then until now. Refusing Him That's speaking. I said if it were a secondary
matter, we need not be so earnest about receiving it. But all things
under heaven, nothing so concerns you and I as the gospel of Him
who speaks, the Lord Jesus Christ. So then, refuse. Not this precious, precious Word. Word that is far more precious
than gold and silver and rubies and all the precious stones put
together. More precious is that Word that
He speaks. In considering this, let me remind
you that you have an enemy, that
there is an enemy of yours who will do all he can, that you
may refuse him that speaks. The enemy that you have, the
enemy that I have, is the devil himself, Satan. He's at his best
where the gospel is preached. where it is most earnestly preached,
where it is preached all the time. He's at His very best,
and He's your enemy. And He'll do everything in His
power under the sun to cause that gospel not to be heard by
you, lest it take root in your heart and save your soul. it
will give you 10,000 excuses not to pay heed, not to pay careful
attention to that which he speaks. Let the sower scatter a handful
of seeds on the plowed ground, and the birds will find out the
seed, and soon devour them. And when the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ is preached, the birds of the air, the fiends
of hell, will by some means try to remove them so that these truths will not
find lodging place in your hearts. lest they should take root and
give you life. So, what I'm saying is, I'm trying
to emphasize the importance of the hearing of the gospel and
the receiving of the gospel. That you have a mortal enemy
that will do his best to keep you from receiving the words
of our God. Oh, He has spoken to you and
me many times from this place, hasn't He? You have heard not only Him that
speaketh from this place, but you have heard Him speak from
other places. You have been reminded of His
Word from sickbeds, times you have experienced. You have heard
and been reminded of the eternality of your soul, of death, of that
which lies beyond death. You've been reminded of it. sickbed. You've been reminded of it from
funerals. You've been reminded of it on
Wednesday nights, on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights. You've been
reminded of it as visiting preachers come and so forth. And I wonder this morning, Is everybody here under the sound
of my voice? Have they a good hope and certainty of the good news of the gospel?
Have they received the gospel? Have they paid careful attention
and gave earnest heed to Him who speaks? Not me, but to Him
who speaks through me in regard to the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. There are many ways now of refusing
Him that speaketh. You can refuse to hear Him that
speaketh by not hearing Him. That is, by not even coming where
he's spoken of. We have a few here this morning,
but we ought to have a whole lot more, oughtn't we? We ought
to have a whole lot more. We ought to have our pews filled
with people to hear him that speaketh. So there's a lot of folks, as
a matter of fact, the majority of people at any given time on
the face of this earth, refuse to hear Him by not hearing Him,
by not coming to hear Him. And they are without excuse.
They ought to come. If you will not come to hear
Him, if a man will not come to hear Him on the tree, then one
day they must see Him for themselves on the throne. If you don't come
to hear Him in regard to His cross, in regard to what God
has done by sending Him, in other words, by God coming Himself
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, to give life and pardon and peace
and comfort and a home in heaven. If you will not come where that
is being told time after time, time after time, if you will
not come and hear that then, you will see that for yourself
one day when He sits upon the throne. If you won't hear about
Him on the tree, you're going to see Him on the throne. That
is, there's going to be a judgment. There's going to be a day of
recompense. And He's going to call them all
together. And those that refuse in this
life to come to this place where He speaks, and hear and give
attention to. He's going to say, Depart from
Me, ye workers of iniquity, and take your place in the everlasting
burnings. So there is many who refuse to
hear Him by refusing to hear Him. refusing to come where the
Word is preached. Time for everything else, but
no time for a man's soul. And I've already said it's the
most important commodity that you've got is your never-dying
soul. And you ought to be eager, and
I ought to be eager, to pay careful attention and to listen and to
seek and to search to hear from the God of heaven concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, our blessed, blessed, blessed Redeemer. Oh,
a man may close his ears to the good news in Christ, but the
day will come And certainly it will. As sure as I'm standing
here, the day will come when you'll not be able to close your
ears when the wrath of God is pronounced. And the wrath of
God falls upon a man. The fullness of the wrath of
God, the unmitigated wrath of God will fall upon him who refuses
to hear. Who refuses to give earnest heed
and careful attention to him that speaketh? See, he said that
you refuse not to hear him that speaketh. See to it. See to it. Well, most hearers, and the reason
I know that most hearers are like this, because I'm a hearer,
Most hearers are listless hearers. That is, they hear the sentences
and they hear the phrases that comes from the tongue of the
speaker or the tongue of the preacher, but they only penetrate
the ear. They never reach the heart. There's
that enemy that comes in and diverts their attention, causes
them to put their thoughts in other places and to think of
other things. Say, well, tomorrow I'll do this,
or tomorrow I'll do that, or there's plenty of time. Listless
hearers. There are some who do hear and
have some idea. Some who hear and some that have
an idea. They have an understanding, a
little understanding of what they hear, but yet they actually
refuse it. They actually, in themselves,
they refuse it. Why? I don't know. I don't know. For reasons best known unto themselves,
I reckon. They reject the testimony of
the incarnate God. They reject the testimony of
the blessed gospel that tells them that God became a man, took
upon himself the form of flesh, and suffered and bled and died
and made atonement. and is able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God by him. They hear that gospel and they
refuse it. They refuse it. Actually, they
refuse it. They refuse the testimony that
says whosoever believeth on him, or believeth in him, is not condemned." How can a man? There's no way for a man who
will carefully and earnestly give heed and pay careful attention
to If He will, if a man will give heed and pay attention to
Him that speaketh from heaven concerning His Son, there's no
way that that man will be lost. Because He'll hear! He'll hear! And He'll receive! And He'll
bow down. Oh my! How can a man born of
woman hear the testimony of God from heaven concerning His Son
and tell Him, He that believes on Him will not be condemned? How can a man then refuse to
be identified with Him? That gives me cold chills when
I think of the multiplied millions of people who care nothing about God. I just heard something there
on the television yesterday, and I thought this is characteristic,
it's typical of man's indifference concerning God. God that the
heavens cannot contain. God become a man. God who is
infinite in power and wisdom. All together lovely, the Bible
says. All together lovely. Put it all
together and He is all together lovely. God condescended to become
a man. The story is, He that believeth
on Him that I have sent is not condemned. reverend and holy is his name. And I heard this story yesterday about this fellow, basketball
player, played against West Virginia Saturday afternoon, Providence's
team. He's their star player. When
they first played, West Virginia first played him two or three
weeks back. He was the man that was instrumental
in beating him. And his name was Sham God. Have
you ever mentioned that name? Sham God, that was his name.
That's his last name, Sham God. His first name was... I don't
rightly know, although I did hear it. His first name was a
common name. Bill, John, Joe, Mike. Pete,
a common name. But he changed his name to God
Sham God. Changed his name. His last name
was Sham God. He changed his name to God Sham
God. Isn't that terrible? No more conception of God. He has no more conception of
God than most people do. I probably would have done the
same thing. No different than anybody else. But God, that's what I say. If
you just have a little bit of light and a little bit of understanding
that God, the awesome God, who made all things sustains all
things, all wise, all powerful. Fear not him that is able to
kill the body, but rather fear ye him who is able to kill the
body and send the soul to hell. For a mere mortal creature, a sinner by nature, by choice
and by practice, to have the audacity They say, I'll change
my name to God. Yeah. There was a baseball player,
played for, I believe the Chicago Cubs. His name was Jesus L.U. God, sham God. Audacity. I'm God. It looked like that
there would have been some people at the courthouse that would
have protested to this fellow when he came to say, I want to
officially change my name to God. It looked like somebody
would have risen to the occasion and said, Do you know what you're
doing? Do you understand what you're
saying here? That you're attributing that
which belongs to God and God alone to you? Calling yourself God? Oh, listen, isn't that characteristic
of us? That's the way Men are listless
and men are indifferent and unconcerned and don't care. God Almighty. Some refuse the gospel because
they are offended at the gospel. As it was in the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ when He came up And he got at a tender point
in his preaching and they that heard him, they turned and went
back and followed him no more. They were offended. And he looked at Peter and James
and John and the rest of them and he said, You going to follow
them out? You going with them? And they said, Where can we go?
Thou hast the words of life. Many people are offended, offended
at the gospel. Sometimes it evidently rubs them
the wrong way. Sometimes they get angry. when
they ought to be angry with sin, not angry with Him who delivers
from sin. Oh, yet they are angry with Him. They ought to denounce themselves
instead of denouncing Him. They ought to seek mercy rather
than denounce the preacher or denounce the authority of the preacher. They're offended by the gospel.
No, they refuse him. It offends them. It affects their way of life, they
say. Well, it's robbing me of some
of my pleasures. If I bow to the King of Kings,
the Lord of Lords, it's going to rob me. It's going to take
away from me some pleasures that I desire. It robs me of it. It curtails my lust. They're offended. They say, I'm good enough the way
I am. I'll make it the way I am. I'm all right. I'll stand on
my own two feet. I have some merit. I have some
qualities about me that are worthy of consideration. You have no
qualities about you. You have no merit about you. Your merit, you have none, but
if you had some, it would send you to hell. It sure is two and
two is four. I'm saying all this this morning
in order that maybe, God, maybe there's some... You know, I've
fished in this hole for a long time. Have I caught all the fish
that's here? I don't think so. If I thought
that was true, I'd seek out a place I'd find another hole. I don't
believe that's true. But I do that and say what I'm
saying this morning, that God might be pleased to impress upon
you and impress upon me likewise, to refuse not Him that speaks. I could have pity on you, I have pity on you anyhow. But
I could really have pity on you. If you drank a bottle of poison
and you didn't know it, I could have pity on you. But most, brother,
they take it and know there's poison in it. Oh, listen. Many ways, aren't they? great
mass of men, boys and girls, men and women. They care not
for heaven, care not for the pardon of sin, indifferent to
it. They are like the rooster that
found a diamond on the dunghill and he turned
it over and wished it was a grain of wheat. Refuse not Him that speaketh. Do you hear what I'm saying? God spake from heaven to His
Son. And He said, I come. He says,
stop, look, and listen. Consider what I'm saying. Listen
to me. Be quiet. And listen to me, I'm
telling you that there's pardon for your sins. I'm telling you
that. I'm telling you the way of pardon
is through Him I sent. I'm telling you that my way of
dealing with sinners of Adam's race is through a substitute
and the substitute is my Son, the Word. And if you'll trust
in Him, if you'll trust in His sacrifice, I'm willing, on the
basis of who He is and the ground of what He does and has done,
I'm willing and able to pardon you to forgive you of all of
your sins, and clothe you in His righteousness, and make you
acceptable before Me in Him." That's what God's speaking. That's
what He's speaking. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior
of sinners. Ah, so I'm glad I listened. It
wasn't in me to do so, you know that. But God so worked this thing
that He got my attention. No one else ever got my attention.
Headstrong, like a horse with a bit in his teeth. But God got
my attention. And I listened. And oh, what
joy did flood my soul when I heard that God, for Christ's sake,
would forgive me all of my sins of yesterday, today, and sins
to come. I said it's too good to be true.
But I found it is true! So I bid you earnestly, lovingly,
tenderly, best I know how, to refuse not Him that speaketh. Hear ye Him. He that believeth is not condemned. Huh? Is that good news? He that
believeth is not condemned. No condemnation to them that
are in Christ. Believe Him. Oh, that man would
know that you can't win heaven by your good works or your merit. It's only won by Him who has
conquered sin, the flesh, hell, and the devil, the Lord Jesus
Christ. My soul, my soul, some refuse
because they don't like the holiness of his teaching. Some refuse
because of the strictness, so-called, of his religion. They say his
religion is too strict, too precise. It cuts off all my pleasure. It condemns all my lust. If we
refuse him, We shall be refusing and despising the highest possible
authority in the universe. You refuse Him, there's no higher
authority in the universe than God. And He speaks to us in these
last days by and through His Son. So if you refuse Him, you
refuse the highest authority. in the universe that God rules
and reigns in. There's no other. When Moses spake in God's name, he said to God, he said, I've
lost my touch with civilization. I've been out there in the back
end of the desert all these years. I'm not able to talk. They won't
listen to me. He said, You go in my name. You
speak in my name. You tell Pharaoh, I am that I
am. I have sent thee highest authority. Who in those days would make
light of Moses' authority? And Moses was just a man. But I'm talking about him who
is more than just a man. I am talking about Him who is
God and man in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. When Moses spoke, it would have
been a crime, intolerable, to refuse the ambassador of God,
even though He was a man. But Jesus Christ is God by nature. He comes from heaven. He comes
from heaven! There is a parable over here in Matthew chapter
21. Matthew chapter 21. Verse 33, it's a parable spoken by him, whom Paul said refused not to
hear him that speaketh. He said, There was a certain
householder which planted a vineyard, And he hedged it round about
and digged a wine press in it and built a tower, and he let
it out to husbandmen. He let it out to some fellows
that would take care of it for him. And he went off into a far
country. And when the time of the fruit
drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might
receive the fruits of it. But the husbandmen, took his
servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another. That
was the treatment that they received from the hands of the husband.
Well, he sent another servant. He sent other servants more like
the first, and they did unto them likewise. So last of all,
probably after some thought, he sent unto them his son. And
this is what he said. He said, They will reverence
my Son. They'll reverence my Son. And when the husbandmen
saw the Son, they said unto themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let
us seize off his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast
him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the Lord thereof
of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto these husbandmen? They say, Unto him he will miserably
destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto
other husbandmen, which shall render him fruits in their season. Now this is a picture, God sent
his Son. See that you refuse not to hear
him that speak. God help you that you'll consider
what I said this morning. For your everlasting good, kiss
the Son, lest he be angry. and you fall by the wayside.
Receive Him. Receive Him. Bow to Him. Honor Him. Exalt Him. Worship
Him. Love Him. Serve Him. All your
life. Wish I could go back. Well, it's
wishful thinking. But if I had to do over again,
and I had anything to do about it, I certainly wouldn't have
done the things that I've done. I'd find a little comfort in a life that wasn't misspent.
Don't misspend your life. Don't do it. Don't do it. Come
to Him. Come to Him. Trust Him. Say, My beloved is mine. belong
to him, he's mine. Well, let's stand, we'll be this
way. Pat, you pray for us, will you?
Dear Heavenly Father, we're thankful for this time.