My text this morning will come
from the second chapter of the book of Hebrews. If you would
turn there with me, Hebrews chapter two. Let me say by way of introduction
that many times in the scriptures, those who heard the gospel preached
were convicted by what they heard. And they asked this question,
what must I do to be saved? That rich young ruler asked it
this way. He said, what good thing shall
I do that I may have eternal life? What must be done for us
to be saved is certainly a good thing, but let me let you in
on a little secret. It's nothing that we can do.
Our Lord's answer was direct to that young rich man. He said, come and follow me.
Sell all you have. Give it to the poor and you shall
have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. But the young
man is said to have gone away sorrowful because he had great
possessions. Most folks want treasure in heaven,
but they're not willing to give up their treasures here to have
them. I've heard a saying all my life,
which is somewhat similar really. And that is everybody wants to
go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. That's true. Then there was also the keeper
of the prison. We refer to him often as the
Philippian jailer. And upon seeing the power of
God, if you remember, God sent an earthquake, the prison doors
were opened, and this man seeing the power of God, he came and
he fell before Paul and Silas. And he said, what must I do to
be saved? Now, he wasn't looking for a
work to glory in. He was concerned about his soul,
having seen who got it. And their answer to him was also
very plain and direct. They said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. Well, it can't be that
simple. Yes, it is that simple. But that entails a whole lot
more than modern day religion declares it to mean today. Matter
of fact, Paul and Silas went on to tell that Philippian jailer,
this goes for you and all that are in your house, all whom you
love, all whom will believe the Lord will save. You see, salvation
comes by believing and trusting and relying upon. Believing entails
much more than just giving mental assent to something. It means
to trust with all your heart that God has done for you that
which God requires of you. Christ is that gospel. You know,
there were others who asked the question this way. They said,
what shall we do to work the works of God? And the Lord Jesus
with no hesitation said, this is the work of God that you believe
on him whom he had sent. And they said, well, give us
a sign, a sign that we may see and believe. Show us a work that
we can do. And the Lord said, I'm the sign. There's no work for you to do.
I finished the work. I am the finished work. Still
not being content with his answer, they said, well, our fathers
did eat manna in the wilderness, in the desert, and Moses, as
a sign to them, as God's prophet, gave us bread from heaven to
eat. That was Moses' sign to our fathers. What sign are you gonna give
us to believe? And the Lord said, well, first
of all, you don't have your facts straight. He said, first and
foremost, Moses gave not your fathers that bread. He said,
my father in heaven gave it to him. Moses gave not that bread. No, sir. And secondly, he said,
I'm the true bread from heaven, the bread that gives life. And
they said, Lord, give us this bread. And the Lord said, I am
the bread of life. And he that cometh to me shall
never hunger. And he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. You see, believing on Christ
is coming to him. It's following him. He's everything
in your life. That's what it is to believe
on Christ. The Lord Jesus said, I am the only sign. I'm the only
proof that God is going to give you life. I'm the bread that
you must partake of. I'm the water of life that you
must freely drink up. So what must we do to be saved?
Well, we're going to have to believe on Christ. We're going
to have to come to Christ. We're going to have to follow
him. And we're going to have to see that Christ is all our
salvation. We can't put our trust in anything
other than him. and His finished work of redemption.
And in and of ourselves, we can do none of those things. We can't
believe on Him, we can't come to Him, and we can't see Him.
We're dead in trespasses and sin. We're blind unless God gives
us eyes to see. Our hearts are deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked unless God gives us the ability
in our hearts to believe. None of us can believe on Christ
apart from God divinely intervening and God divinely revealing and
giving us the gift of faith to believe. None of us can follow
the Lord Jesus unless he bid us to come to him. lest he enable
us to walk with him." We're laying on both our feet due to a great
fall. We can't come and we will not
come to Christ that we might have life unless God enables
us. Even our believing our faith
is the gift of God. Now in our text, the writer here,
Hebrews, who I honestly believe is the Apostle Paul, but I won't
part ways with anyone over that. We'll refer to him as the writer
of Hebrews. He's writing to those who had
already professed to believe and those who had already professed
to love and to follow Christ. And here in Hebrews chapter two,
verse one, he says this, look at these words closely. He says
here, therefore, 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 sleep." Boy, what a warning that is. And it's a warning that
comes out of love and out of concern for his people. We ought
to give them more earnest heed to what? The things that we've
heard, the things that we've heard. That word earnest there
means abundant. That word heed there means caution. We need to give abundant caution. We need to give frequent attention. Same thing. To what? To the things
that we've heard. I've heard some things, I believe
some things, and I believe you have too. You know, when you
read a letter from someone, you start at the beginning. That's
pretty common knowledge. You don't start in the middle
or you don't start at the end and go backwards and you don't
skip around. You don't read the beginning
and jump somewhere in the middle. You read a letter in its context,
right? And also remember that the scriptures,
the Bible, especially the epistles, are just that. They're letters
and the chapter and the verses were added later for easy reference. So we see in verse one, the very
first word of the sentence is therefore. Now a common practice
and study is whenever you see the word therefore in the Bible,
and I know you've heard this, but it's a good rule of thumb. Whenever you see the word therefore
in the Bible, you look at what was said before that appears
in order to see what the word is therefore. That's a good way
to remember it. Therefore, let's see what he's
fixing to say is therefore. So we don't have to look back
very far to discover that. Matter of fact, in my Bible,
you don't even have to turn the page. look at Hebrews chapter
one, verses one and two, and keep in mind that we need to
give most earnest heed, the most tension in regard to the things
that we hear again and again. Now here in Hebrews one, verses
one and two, we see, first of all, that God speaks to us by
His Son. That's very important. In the
Old Testament days, God spoke in various ways at various times
in different manners by the prophets. That's what He said. To some
of His prophets, He appeared. To some of God's prophets, He
spoke to them in visions and in dreams. That's the way that
God spoke to his people by these prophets of God. Moses was a
prophet of God. Elijah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah,
they were all prophets of God and God spoke to them and he
spoke through them. And not only was this God's purpose
means of speaking to his people, but God always spoke through
these Old Testament prophets, the things concerning the redemption
that is found in Christ alone. I say it very often anymore because
it's been such a revelation to me, but in studying the Old Testament
scriptures, we see that clearer and clearer all the time. Everything
in the Old Testament points to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every
promise, prophecy, type recorded in the law, the prophets and
the Psalms are concerning Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And every
single one of them have their fulfillment in Him. When a prophet
would come upon the scene and speak for the Lord, he'd say,
thus sayeth the Lord. And when a true prophet of God
spoke, his words were from the Lord and they were about Christ. Now the Jews in our Lord's day,
boy, they thought of Moses as the first great prophet of Israel,
and he was. But the Jews in our Lord's day,
oh, they held Moses in high esteem. They loved him. They loved Moses.
They trusted in Moses. They kept Moses' law. One day,
the Lord Jesus was speaking with a group of the Jews, and the
Lord Jesus said, I know you, and you don't have the love of
God in you. You see, he's God, he knows all
things. These Jewish leaders, these Jewish
religious people, they were so appalled at his accusations. And the Lord said to them, don't
think that I'll accuse you to the father. I'm not gonna accuse
you to the father, even though I know how you are, because there's
one who already accuses you. And that's Moses in whom you
trust. The Moses that you love, the
Moses in whom you trust, the Moses in whom you're endeavoring
to keep his law, he's the one that accuses you. And then he
went on to say, if you would have believed Moses, you would
have believed me because Moses wrote about me. But if you don't
believe what Moses wrote about me, how are you gonna believe
anything that I tell you? There was another time when the
Lord also was speaking with the Jews and he told them that they
were of their father, the devil. And you know what they did? They
said that he had a devil. Then they asked him, they said,
do you think you're greater than father Abraham? Who are you making
yourself out to be? Who do you think you are? Are
you greater than our father, Abraham? And you remember what
the Lord said? The Lord said, I don't make myself
to be anyone. He said, if I honor myself, my
honor is nothing. It's my father that honors me.
Your father, Abraham, he rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and
he was glad. Before Abraham was, I am. I am the great I am, and I was
so long before Abraham ever was. And this is how God speaks today
to His elect children. He speaks to us by His Son, who
is the Word of God. He speaks to His people through
His Word called the Holy Bible. And if He ever speaks to a sinner,
it'll be through the preaching of this Word. It's just the way
that God ordained it to be. That's why we give such preeminence
to preaching. It's by preaching Christ. There
is no other message that says, if the Lord ever speaks to a
sinner, it'll be through preaching. Why he himself said, search the
scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, but they
are they which testify me. They're all about me. I think
I'm beginning to see that. You see, he is the messenger
and he is the message. If He's not the message, then
you have not heard the truth. And when our Lord preached to
the men on the road to Emmaus, it says, beginning at Moses and
all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures,
all the Old Testament scriptures, the things concerning Himself. God speaks through his son and
he speaks through his son about his son. What did the Lord Jesus
Christ preach? He preached himself. Come unto
me all you that labor and I'll give you rest. Christ is the
Sabbath rest. We need to give the more earnest
heed, my dear friends, to the things which we've heard. Now
we've heard some things and we need to give the more earnest
heed to them. Again, here in Hebrews chapter one of verse
two, we see that Jesus Christ has been appointed by God to
be heir of all things. You know what your Bible says?
Do you know what that means? That means that God Almighty
has put everything in heaven and everything in earth in the
hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, everything. Christ is working
all things after the counsel of His own will. He sits at the
right hand of God. You know, that's the place of
power and authority. All blessings, all benefits,
all graces, all mercy is at His disposal. All of it. All things
have been committed to the Son, even judgment. God has given
authority to execute judgment, John 5, 27. Just as God brought
Joseph to Egypt and Pharaoh made him ruler over all Egypt. You remember that story. That's
such a beautiful story, isn't it? God was with Joseph, we're
told that several times. But he put everything into Joseph's
hands, the crops, the storage of the crops, the silos, the
storehouses, even unto the dispensing of the crops. If anyone came
to Pharaoh seeking grain, wheat, corn, whatever, Pharaoh said,
go to Joseph, go to Joseph. Everything has been committed
under his hands. Friends, Jesus Christ is the
heir and he's the owner of all things. He has life, he is life,
and he's the one that dispenses life to whom he will. Go to Joseph,
come to Christ, same thing. He has everything that you need
in order to live, everything. We ought to give the more earnest
heed to these things that we've heard. Also, we see in verse
two here that Jesus Christ is the creator of all things. You
see that? By whom also He made the world.
By Him, for Him, through Him, for His glory, all things were
made. John chapter one, verse three says, all things were made
by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.
Jesus Christ is the creator. We ought to give great caution
to these things that we've heard, lest at any time we should slip. In verse three, we're told that
Christ is the brightness of God's glory. That simply means that
God is glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ. As the sun is the
brightness of our solar system that gives light and life, Christ
is the sun, S-U-N, the brightness which manifests to His people
the glory of God. When we see Christ, we see God's
glory. It is in Christ that we see who
God is. He's the express image of His
person, it says here. That phrase express image here
in verse three means to stamp or to engrave or to make an exact
copy. No wonder Christ said, if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father. Everything that God is, Christ
is. He's the express image of God
for in Him, in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily or in a body. You've heard that before. Heard
it many times. We need to give a more earnest
heed to the things that we've heard. We take great caution
and regard the things that we've heard. If we don't, at any time,
it says in chapter two, verse one, we might slip. Now that
word slip, and if you have a marginal Bible, you may notice that it
means to run out as leaking vessels. In verse three, again, we see
that Christ upholds the world by His power in chapter one.
That's something that only God can do. God speaks to us. So what have we seen here? What
have we heard? God speaks to us by His Son.
God has appointed the Lord Jesus Christ heir over all things. Jesus Christ is the one that
made the worlds. Jesus Christ is the brightness
of God's glory. He's the exact image of God's
person. And then verse three also tells
us that Jesus Christ is the sacrifice and the substitute and the savior
for His people's sin. We read, when He, the one whom
the Father sent, when He, the Lord Jesus Christ, had by Himself
purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of God. We've
heard who Christ is. He's our savior. He's our substitute. He's our sacrifice. He's our
surety. He purged our sins. What does
that mean? It means he put them away. He
paid for them with his precious blood. We're redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ. We're redeemed by that blood
that cleanses us from all sin. That's his blood. By himself,
he purged our sins. And I'm here to tell you this
morning, that was enough. How do I know? Because he sat
down. That's how I know. God's law
is fulfilled. God's justice is satisfied. And
Christ sat down. And here we see the only hope
of redemption that any of us have. No hope of redemption apart
from this, when Christ had by himself purged our sins. when
Christ by Himself had walked the winepress of God's wrath
and judgment alone. He purged all our sin, and that
means past, present, and future. All of them, all of them are
gone. To not believe that is so is
to deny the Lord Jesus Christ. It really is. It's to deny all
that He's done. We ought to give the more earnest
heed. We ought to give our greatest
attention. We ought to give our greatest caution to the things
which we've heard. Have you heard these things?
I mean, have you really heard them? Not just with the ears,
but with the heart of faith. Ask God to keep them in your
remembrance. Ask God to put them in your heart. And you guard
against them with all your life. You keep coming and you keep
hearing. And you keep coming and you keep hearing. Why? Because
without faith, it's impossible to please God. And faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Who can lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies us in
Christ. In Christ, God is both just and
justifier. You've heard these things. You've
heard them. Who is He that condemns us? It's
Christ that died. These are the things that we
must give the most earnest heed to. These are the wonderful things
that we've heard. Verse four tells us that Christ
is greater than the angels. And He most certainly is. Verse
five tells us that Christ is the Father's only begotten Son. Verse 6 tells us that He's the
firstborn of every creature. And He said, let the angels of
God worship Him. Listen, the angels only worship
God. You've heard these things. Jesus
Christ is God. And look what God the Father
says of the Lord Jesus in verse 8. God the Father said, Thy throne,
O God, is forever. God the Father calls God the
Son God because He is. And there's no chapter division
here between chapter one and chapter two, all the things that
were said about the Lord Jesus in Hebrews chapter one, who he
is, what he did and where he is now. Paul says, therefore,
you and I should give the most earnest heed to these things,
which we've heard, unless at any time we should let them slip. You know, I was thinking about
that yesterday as I read these verses again and again, especially
verse one of chapter two. To say that we ought to give
great regard and extreme caution to the things which we've heard
most definitely insinuates that we don't. In most cases it does. We ought to. How many times have
you said, you know, I ought to do that? And it basically means
that you haven't done it yet. We ought to give great regard.
We ought to give extreme caution, the more earnest heed to the
things which we've heard. You know, apostasy always begins
so subtle. It never announces itself. You
know, apostasy, leaving God, it doesn't come on the scene
and say, hey, I'm apostasy and I'm out to damn you. It just
don't work that way. Apostasy is a subtle thing. It's a gradual thing. It's so
easy to slip and to fall. It can happen at any time. That's
what the writer here says. Lest at any time you let them
slip. You know, David praying to the
Lord God of heaven and earth said, thou hast enlarged my steps
under me that my feet did not slip. David's feet were established
on Christ, the rock of ages. Christ, the solid rock and sure
foundation from which there is no danger of slipping and falling.
That's what he meant by that. And we can't let our worship
of Christ slip. A believer will not allow, now
listen to me, a true believer will not allow anything to get
in the way of hearing Christ preached, just won't. That's
how God's worshiped, by us hearing and believing the things of Christ.
That's why we give great attention to the things that we've heard.
And we see to it that we keep on hearing and we keep on hearing
because I've already said it. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. We see in Luke chapter eight,
that seed that fell upon a rock. I won't turn you there, but you
know that story well. Now that seed that fell upon
a rock speaks of those who receive the Word of God with joy, but
they have no root, but for a while they believe, and in time of
temptation they fall away. The Lord explained that. The
seed that fell among thorns speaks of those when they have heard,
they go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures
of this life, and they bring no fruit unto perfection. But
the seed that falls upon good ground, that speaks of those
which God has given life and light. Upon having heard the
word of God, they keep it, they remember it, and they bring forth
fruit with patience. That's why Paul encourages professing
believers in the scriptures in his letter to not forsake the
assembling of themselves together as the manner of some is. Some had forsaken the assembling
of themselves, or Paul wouldn't have said that. And it's such
a subtle thing. It's in hearing the message of
Christ through the preaching of the gospel. That's where this
good ground is kept fertile and ready for the seed of God's Word. We ought to come prepared to
hear from God. We ought to come asking God to
prepare our hearts to hear from Him. That's why we're here, isn't
it? So the real question of this
hour is found in verse three of Hebrews chapter two. Let's
seriously consider and contemplate what it asks us here, and I'll
finish up. It says, 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?
How do we escape, dear friends, such a severe penalty if we refuse
and we neglect so great a salvation that is provided for us only
in Christ. The gospel was declared by the
Lord Himself. And it's great salvation because
He is its author. Hebrews 5 verses 8 and 9, you're
close, look at it with me. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey him." You see, friends, this is great salvation because
of the wisdom of it. Romans 3, 25 and 26 says, Christ
is whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sin. Our
righteousness does nothing for our sin. He says, to declare
His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. You've heard these things. Need
to give them the more earnest heed, things that you've heard.
It's great salvation because of the cost of it. We're bought
with a price. You've been purchased with Christ's
blood. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. It's great salvation
because of the power of it. Paul said, for I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe. To the Jew first and also to
the Greek, Romans 1 16. Why should we give the more earnest
heed, this careful caution, this great regard to the things that
we've heard? Look at verse four in chapter
two. God also bearing them witness
both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts
of the Holy Ghost according to His own will. You know, the gospel
was preached by our Lord Himself. It was confirmed by the apostles.
It was established and it was endorsed by God Himself, who
gave these apostles these great gifts, marvelous manifestations
of His Holy Spirit. While they spoke the truth, spoke
the truth in other languages that they didn't even know. They
healed the sick, they raised the dead, they cast out demons.
And all of these signs and wonders were given by God to bear witness
of who Christ was. So that we might see that the
things that we have heard are so, and that we should never
let them slip. But in all reality, it's God
who keeps us. So we're shut up to His mercy
and His grace. We're kept by the power of God. We will endure to the end. God's
people will, but it's because Christ loves us until the end. We've heard that. We know it's
so. If you don't endure to the end,
then Christ never loved you. It's just the truth of the fact.
You were never one of His. And that is why we ought to give
the more and more and more earnest heed to the things that we've
heard. They're the truth. How shall I escape the judgment
and wrath of God if I'm indifferent to this gospel? How shall I escape
if I put other things before Christ who is my salvation? This is called so great a salvation. It's because it has a great savior. How do we escape if we reject
it? How shall we escape if we reject Christ? Therefore we ought
to give the more earnest heed to the things which we've heard,
lest at any time we should let them slip. I don't want to slip. I don't want to fall. And the
child of God won't. Because they won't let go of
Christ, and he definitely won't let go of them. I think about
old Jacob, who would not let go of the angel of God until
that angel blessed him. No doubt that was Christ. The
child of God says, though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
And we mean it. May God be pleased to make the
things that we've heard effectual to our hearts, and may he be
pleased to do so for Christ's sake. That's the only reason
he will for Christ's sake, not because of anything we've done,
for what Christ has done for us. I love the gospel, don't
you? Let's don't forget these things.
Let's don't forget them.