Hebrews chapter 2, and we'll
be looking at verses 1 through 5, and we'll see other portions
of Scripture in this chapter. Hebrews chapter 2 and verses
1 through 5. The title of the message is,
Earnestly Heed the Gospel. Earnestly heed the gospel. The Scripture says, Therefore
we ought to give them more earnest heed to the things which we have
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." Again, remember
that this book of Hebrews centers around how Christ is better than
the law of Moses, better than the angels, better than anything,
because He is God's salvation. He is the only hope. for sinners, he's it. He's precious. He's precious. He's of great
value. You know, if you were to dig
up an ancient Egyptian tomb and you found a 2,000-year-old roll
of toilet paper, now, it would be old. It would be rare, it
would not be precious. It would not be precious. I imagine
you could find some fool to buy it, but really, it just wouldn't
be worth anything. Oh, but if you found a one of
a kind gem, how precious would that be? You see, Christ is one
of a kind. He's all by himself, all together,
beautiful and precious because he is God's only salvation. Therefore,
he is better than all things. He is better than all things.
This is the center of the book, that Christ is better than the
law, that Jesus Christ is the creator, the sustainer of all
things. He sustains all things by the
word of His power, and He moves all things after the counsel
of His own will. Jesus Christ, to Him alone belongs
all praise, majesty, glory, dominion, honor, and power. He deserves all things. He is
worthy of all things. Look at verse 4 in the previous
chapter. He says, being so much better than the angels, as he
hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. The angels of God. They're ministering
spirits. They're powerful. You know that
one angel that went through the Assyrian camp killed 165,000,
185,000 I believe. One. That's one. Angels are powerful. Angels are
gloriously beautiful and holy. They were made that way. God
made them his holy angels. And those that are his elect
angels who did not fall, he sustains them in their holy perfection. Scripture says that man is made
lower than the angels. Angels are high. Christ is higher. Christ is infinitely higher than
the holy angels because he had an inheritance that was given
to him from before the foundation of the world. God the Father
gave him a name that is to be above every name. His name is
to be submitted to. His name is to be glorified because
he possesses God's church. God gave him his church, and he became the surety for
his church. How precious! He alone was set
aside by God Almighty, an anointed king over all things. He is above the angels. It was
said of the Lord Jesus Christ that God had sent angels to minister
to him and to serve him on the earth. Remember, when he was
tempted, he was tested of Satan and found, he said, the prince
of the world had found nothing in me. There's no sin here. There's
no sin here. And then the angels came down
and ministered to his needs, gave him food and water and those
things that were necessary. You see, the angels are not higher
than Christ. They ministered to him. And friends,
they do minister to us. They have greater power, they
have greater glory than this earthly tabernacle, but yet they
are ministering spirits. They're ministers. Even so, God sends his angels
to fulfill his will of providence. You remember in Ezekiel, the
wheel within a wheel, that's the providence of God's spinning.
We don't know where it's going, but God knows, and he uses those
angels, he says, in that book to fulfill his will. They just
do his pleasure. But I'll tell you this, they
have a specific duty unto God's children, and that is to minister
to us. They are to minister to us. who are the heirs of salvation
in Christ. But Jesus, the eternal Son of
God, who has come to deliver the Word of God, to give us the
full revelation of God's salvation. And friends, if he is higher
than the angels in heaven, how much should we heed His word. How carefully should we listen
to His voice? Remember, my voice is contemptible. Don't hear my voice, hear His. Hear His Scripture said Jesus
said that the day is coming and now is when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. I can't do that. I can't do that. He can. He can. Friends, there is no more need
for signs and wonders and miracles concerning the Word of God, no
more need for dreams and visions, no more need for obscure types
and shadows. Why? Because God has spoken to
us by his Son. He has spoken to us by the Highest. What more does he have to say?
What more does he have to prove? People are always seeking signs
and wonders, aren't they? Always looking for something
to energize their flesh, to get them a little bit pumped up,
so they can continue and come back next time. No, we don't need those things.
The Word of God was spoken by the Son of God. That's all I
need. And you know what, if they had what they asked for, they
still wouldn't believe. Miracles never convince anybody
of anything. Remember what Abraham said to
the rich man in hell. He said, even though they would
rise from the dead, even though Lazarus would rise from the dead
and tell them face to face, they would not believe. So what did
he say? He said they had Moses and the
prophets. In other words, they had the Word of God. I'll tell
you, the Old Testament, the Word of God was a mystery. A mystery. But now the mystery is revealed. The curtain has been torn apart
that separated us from our God. Jesus Christ has brought that
word to us, to man. Therefore, the apostle says,
give a more earnest heed. Christ, the Alpha and the Omega,
the Beginning and the End, has spoken. What more do you need? Feelings? They come and go. We should trust in his word. Have you seen heaven? Have you
seen God? And yet here is Jesus Christ
who come and said, I have come that I might manifest him, that
I might show you God. And Jesus said, Here I am. I am God. God manifest in the
flesh. Therefore, you ought to give
the more earnest heed to the things which you have heard."
There are some who are deceived to think that salvation is something
that is done one time, something that they must do and check off
as though it were a list, a checklist, like you go to the grocery store,
check. You go get some new clothes, check. You get saved, check. Then they leave it alone. There's
no more for them. That's it. That's all. It's over.
No. Salvation is not like that. Salvation
is not a one-time decision. It's not an endless accumulation
of words either. It's not in religious ceremonies. Salvation of the eternal soul
of man is in Christ. He alone has the Word of God. He is the Word of God. And God has spoken by him. The gospel of Jesus Christ You
see, man by nature is apt to believe anything but the truth.
You know that? There was a man who was a well-known
atheist, and he was backed into the corner by the child's question
of, where did this come from? Well, then where did that come
from? Where did this come from? And he said, well, let's just
go back to the beginning. Where did that one little thing come from? And
he said, I don't know, there had to be aliens. He would rather
believe that there were little Martians that left no word. No evidence. And yet, God had
left thousands of years of evidence. Time and time again, He had come
to His people. Time and time again, He had delivered
them from their enemies. And now, He has sent His Son
to testify, to fulfill all those types and shadows and pictures. Not only that, He gave it to
His apostles, and His apostles proved it. What more does man
need? If you will not hear the Son
of God, you won't hear anything else. He's the final word. There is
no other word of hope. He gives the message. And men
would rather believe in foolish things than to believe the truth. But we who believe, we who believe
on Christ, Should we who have heard not give more earnest heed
to the things we've heard? Who knows it all? Who? Does anybody here know it
all? Have you plumbed the depths of
God's eternal, omnipotent, immutable grace? Have you plumbed the depths
of your own sinful depravity? Have we begun to scratch the
surface as to how much Christ had to suffer on the cross for
our sins? I've not begun to even start
to understand. Should I not give more earnest
heed to his word? Should I not grow in the grace
and knowledge of Jesus Christ? Friends, if we've ever come to
a place where we think we've heard it all, You're in a bad
place. We are in a bad place if we think
we've heard it all. Well, I've heard all that before.
You haven't heard it. You haven't heard it. You haven't
begun to hear it. The wonderful things that God
has prepared from eternity for us. I can't begin to understand
why. He would love a sinner like me. Have you? Have you found that
out yet? That's why heaven's eternal.
Because then we'll only start to begin to fully understand. And it'll take eternity for us
to fully love and serve Him. as we should. We who believe, we should hear
what the apostles and prophets have said concerning Christ,
because they heard it from him. Go to 1 John, chapter 1. 1 John, chapter 1. The apostles said that which
was from the beginning. Which we have what? Heard. We have heard. Which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled the word of life. For the life was manifest and
we've seen it and bear witness and show it to you, the that
eternal life, which was with the father and was manifest unto
us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that you may also have fellowship with
us." And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with the
Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you, that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. There's a message. There's the
message. Have you heard that? God. Is. Light. What does that mean? Is he like
a light bulb? Is that what he's saying? Is
he like a light that you would cut on and cut off? No. What
he's saying is he is pure. That's one thing that escapes
us is holiness. We have absolutely no idea how
holy God truly is, because just when we think we've come to the
point where we understand holiness, He is infinitely holier than
what we thought He was. Holy. The same is true of us in sin.
Just when we think we know how worthless and sinful we are,
we are infinitely worse. The message of the gospel is the message that reconciles
both ends of the spectrum. It reconciles the infinite, holy
God. with the infinitely worthless
sinner. How? By Jesus Christ. He hath reconciled us to God. How? By his blood. By his blood. This same Jesus,
who was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered under the death
of the cross, was from all eternity God, who is light, and in Him
is no darkness at all. Yet He became one with us, a
man. He became a man because we needed
a representative. We needed someone to accomplish
for us what we could not accomplish ourselves. We needed holiness. We needed redemption. We needed
wisdom. We needed righteousness. And
we had none of it. Therefore, God sent his only
begotten Son that we might have all of it. All of it. This is the message of God's
grace that he came, became flesh and dwelt among us. The scripture
says in verse 2 that he was, go back over here to Hebrews, it says, God hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom he made the worlds, who, being the brightness
of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high." He is the brightness of God, and yet he purged our
sins. How is that possible? How is
it that God is able to purge our sins? What did our sins require? Death! The soul that sinneth,
it shall surely die. There's no doubt about that.
There's no question about that. If you die in your sins, hell
is your reward and you'll suffer it for eternity. That's what we deserve. That's
what our sin deserved. But God, in his grace, sent one
who is the express image of his person so that he might deliver
us from the guilt of our sin. And how did he do that? By suffering death for us. I cannot fathom the suffering
of Christ on the cross. I can't fathom one man suffering
eternally in hell, can you? I can't imagine suffering for
my own sins. But, friends, Christ was made
sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He bore our sins
in his own body on the tree, upheld only by his deity. The wrath and vengeance of God
came out on him for all the sins of all his people. He suffered a multi-millions
of hails on the cross. He tread the winepress of the
wrath of God all by himself. But praise God, he came out on
the other side. When God had vengeance poured
out on his only son, Jesus Christ, in the power of his deity, said
it is finished. The work is done. Salvation accomplished. Redemption accomplished. God's
law honored and glorified. for us. Imagine if you knew me, you wouldn't
walk across the street from me. But he died for me. He died for our sins. so that
we might be the righteousness of God in Him. Well, how righteous is that?
It's infinitely more righteous than our minds can comprehend.
I have right now in this mortal body the righteousness of God. I wouldn't say that if Scripture
didn't say it. John says this, as he is, so are we, where? In this present world. That's
how he is. How is he? Scripture says he is sat down
on the right hand of the majesty on high. As he is, so are we. Is that not the most amazing
thing you've ever heard in your entire life? I have the righteousness of God that was given to me by the Son
of God. How much should we pay attention
to this word? How closely should we follow
his every word? Hanging on his word as the pearls
of wisdom drop from his lips. How precious is his word? I'll tell you, that's the only
way I know that those things are so. How? By his word. Friends, it's only by the preaching
of the gospel of Jesus Christ that men are saved. That goes
against everything in this world, doesn't it? Everything against
in our natural sinful flesh. I don't need nobody to preach
to me. Surely I can do this myself. I'm smart enough. We're all intelligent
people. We're not living in the dark
ages anymore. Surely people can understand this message themselves. No, they cannot. You cannot, by your academic
understanding, know the scriptures. You must hear the gospel preached. Flip over to first Corinthians,
chapter one, first Corinthians, chapter one, see the importance
of how what God how God places on his word, see the importance
of of what he places on the word of his son, Jesus Christ. Look at verse twenty one. Let's go back to verse 18. It
says, For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness. Is this foolishness? Listen to
me very carefully, every one of you. Is this foolishness?
What I'm doing, is it foolish to you? Because you're perishing. You're dying. You're dead. And you don't know
it. That's what God's Word says,
not me. I didn't say that. He said it. If this is foolishness,
you're perishing, you're lost and you have no hope. But unto us, but unto us which are saved,
it was preaching the gospel. is the power of God unto salvation. Is that not amazing? Remember when I preached a couple
of weeks back, we saw the Lord taking that spit and the mud,
and he put it in the guy's eyes? And I said this, I'm nothing
but spit and mud. It wasn't the spit or the mud,
it was Christ that opened his eyes. I'm just the irritant. I'm just what's sent to tell
you what God says. And what God does with that,
I have no idea. That's not my business. My business
is to preach. And I know this, God saves sinners
by this. Which is foolish to this world.
It's foolish. Why would God use such a weak
man like you, such a horrible speaker like you? Why would he
use you? I'm better than you." Look at God's Word. It says in verse
21, "...for after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom
knew not God." And here's all the evidence I need. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching. to save them that believe. You see, it doesn't matter what
we think. It only matters what the Son
has revealed. It only matters what the Word
of the Son has said. It pleased God. That's the only
answer I can give you. That's the only answer I can
give you. Sometimes I doubt, I fear that I haven't been called
to preach. That haunts me and fear overwhelms
me at times, but God in great mercy has given me peace when
those fears come. Encouragement, strength to know
that he has. Other than that, other than he
pleased to do so, I don't know why he would send me to preach.
Well, I know why he sent the weakest among you. He sent the
most vile among you to preach to you. That if Christ can save me, he
can save you. If Christ can save a sinner like
me, I'm sure he'd have no problem saving you. We should take heed to his word
because this is the means that God has chosen to save sinners. Go back to your text. We should give earnest heed to
the word of the Son. because he is the only word of
God that speaks salvation to our soul. The scripture says
in verse 2, if the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every
transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of
reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? when the angels in the Old Testament
gave the law. And this is what it was. God
gave the law by his angels. The Scripture says that in Acts
chapter 7. You can read that later. Acts chapter 7, verse
53. How that they were given the law to administer to the
people of Israel. And friends, those people that
did not obey that law, they suffered a just reward, didn't they? If
anybody come near that mount, they die." Now, that was a word
spoken by angels. How much greater, then, is the
word of God if you neglect that? How much more sore punishment
will it be for those who neglect to hear the Son of God? How shall you escape? Will anybody
escape? No. No one will escape the judgment
of the Lamb. He will judge us all. at his appointed time. And only those found in him will
live. Only those who believe on Christ
will be found not guilty. You see, I didn't escape punishment. God didn't say, well, I'm going
to excuse him from his sins and sweep them under the rug. No,
he paid for them. My sins are paid for. If you believe in Christ, your sins
have been paid for. They won't come before God again. But if you neglect this word
and die in your sins, you will suffer for your sin. You will
die in your sins and you will not say one word against the
judge. You'll know he's right. You'll
know it. And friends, this truly is a
great salvation. How great is his salvation. It's as great as God himself. It's perfect. Did you hear me? It's perfect. There's nothing missing. There's
nothing more to do. He's done it all. What else is there left to do? Here is word. Believe on Him and you shall be saved. Is that not simple? Is His Word
complicated? No. Believe. Believe on Christ and you will
be saved. But remember, faith is never
in the past, or the future tense, it's always now. Believe now. Believe now. Believe now. And now, and now, and now, all
the way to the end. I believe on Christ now. I have a great salvation. because Christ has accomplished
it for me." Do we brag on our faith? Absolutely
not. I'll tell you, my faith could
be counted as unbelief. There's no salvation in my faith
in my faith. There's only salvation in faith
in Christ alone. Pray that God would richly bless
you. And friends, I know that we do
let this Word slip. We're like broken cisterns just
leaking water. And as soon as we close in prayer,
it starts to drip out. That's why we need to hear it
again. and again, and again. Do you ever just become dry, so
dry in your soul? Take heed to his word, and he'll
fill you and refresh your soul, and give you strength and courage
now, and now, all the way to the end. How shall we neglect his word?