Hebrews chapter 2, the title
of the lesson, the message, take heed to what you have heard. Give great attention, much thought to what you have
heard. Chapter 2 starts out, with looking
back at chapter 1, or considering, rather, what was written in chapter
1, because it says, therefore, because of what was written, and the things that were written
were written concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the
final spokesman, that He is the brightness of
His Father's glory, Our Lord said in one place, he that has
seen Me has seen the Father. He's the express image of His
person. And that by Himself, He has purged us from our sins. And He sat down at the right
hand of the Majesty, the High, the High Throne of God, As we
just sang, the High King of Heaven, which He is. He is seated there
at the right hand. I like that, the way that's written.
The right hand of majesty. Your majesty. We have forgotten
what that means, haven't we? We have forgotten what it is
to have a king, and we say, your majesty. But He is seated at
the right hand of the majesty on high. And He is better, much
better, really no comparison between the Lord Jesus Christ
and angels. He is their Creator. And it says,
He hath by inheritance, that is by virtue of who He is, obtained
a more excellent name than they. He is the Creator of all things. And He is the One who changes
not. All that you and I see will be changed. He will fold them
up, but his years shall not fail. He remains the same." And after
laying that foundation, the writer says, we, and he includes himself. most important things that I
believe any, especially young preacher can learn, but anyone
who preaches is to never preach down to the people. Because it's
we. It's we. We ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let
them slip Our Lord said in Luke 8, verse
18, take heed how ye hear. In Mark He says, take heed what
you hear, which has the same meaning. Someone wrote this, and I thought
this was good. The more a man thinks of what
he hears, the more he will understand. The less a man thinks on what
he hears, the less he will understand. Take heed how you hear. And he
says here, take heed. Take heed now. Give great attention,
great thought. Let's not just come here and
hear for 30 minutes and hear what the Word preached and then
leave Forget it. And start thinking about, what
am I going to do tomorrow? I've got this going on. Let's
learn. And I'm speaking to myself. Because
I sit in the study, and sometimes I'll be reading, and I may go
two pages or so, and I don't even know what I read. You've
done that? You're reading, and all of a
sudden you're like, what did I just read? Now I'll go back,
I'll go back to the beginning and try to pay attention. And
then give some thought after I leave the study of what I've
read. And when we come to this place,
or any place, you go to a Bible conference, let's give some serious
thought to what we have heard. And you'll see why as we go along
here. Give great attention to it. To what we have heard. What have we heard? The truth. The truth. We've not heard a
lie, we've heard the truth. That's what we've heard. And
we've heard the truth, listen, not from an angel, and not just
from a prophet, even though Christ is that prophet, He is the prophet
of prophets. But we have heard the truth from
God in the flesh. That's who we've heard the truth
from. And we've heard the truth about God. No man knows the Father,
save the Son, and He to Whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. He's revealed the Father to us.
We know who He is. We know what He's like. We are
not left to our imaginations as to who God is. We know who
He is. The Lord Jesus Christ has made
Him known. We've heard the truth about Jesus Christ. We know who
Jesus Christ is. He's the Son of God. Like that
eunuch said, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Do you believe
that? I believe He is. I believe Jesus
Christ is very real. I think He's a very real person.
And He's God. That's who Jesus Christ is. We've
heard that. And God came and gave that to
us. If you hear the truth, even tonight, even though God may use me, you're
hearing from God. God is speaking through His Word
and through His servant. hearing from God. Until we heard
the truth, we lived a lie. Our thoughts of God were wrong.
Whatever thoughts I had of God before I heard the gospel, before
I heard the truth, my thoughts of God were wrong. Because my
thoughts of God were according to my imagination of God. We live the lie. We have heard God speak, and
not just a mere man or an angel, but God came into this world. This ought to astound us, we
should never get over this, that God Almighty came into this world and took
upon Him flesh and preached the gospel to us. God who is Spirit became flesh. And we looked at this last Sunday
when Christ began to preach. Christ the preacher. We can say
it this way, God the preacher. God preached to us in the person
of His Son. And the reason that we are to
give the more earnest heed is because the subject matter Our salvation. Our salvation. The salvation of our souls. You know, there's going to come
a time when each one of us is going to lay down for the last
time to die. And brethren, there will be nothing
more precious than the salvation of our souls. That I have peace
with God. that I have peace with God, that we understand how that God
can be God and save me, that He can remain God, that He can
remain holy, He can remain just and save me. Now he says here, lest at any
time we should let them slip There is a real danger here where
the Holy Spirit would not have had this written. There is a
real danger of letting this slip. What we have heard, what we have
learned, what we've been taught in the Gospel, there is a real
danger of us letting it slip, letting it go. The word slip means to drift
away. That's what this word means.
It means to drift away. It means to slide away smoothly,
almost imperceptible. You don't even realize it's happening. You know, it takes effort. It
takes effort to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It takes effort. Strive to enter in. That's what
it says. Strive to enter in. Labor to
rest. With much tribulation shall you
enter the kingdom of God. But now listen, it takes no effort
to drift away. I went on a float trip, it's
been years ago, me and several of the guys that we attended
church together. And we took about eight or nine
or ten of us. And we took a seven-mile float
trip. We got in canoes, and we got
into the river, and all we did was just guide and fish. We was fishing, but it was effortless. We just went with the flow of
the river, and we just drifted for seven miles. We just kind
of guided the boat a little bit, and that was it. To float or
to drift away is effortless. It's effortless. He says here,
lest at any time, at any time, there's never a time when we
can let down and coast on in. There's never a time. Paul said this, let him that
thinketh that he standeth take heed lest he fall. That's lifelong. That's all your
life. All your life, all your life
now, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
There's nothing more dangerous to a believer than presumption.
Presumption. Paul said that he never counted
himself to have arrived. Turn over to Philippians chapter
3. Now this is the Apostle Paul
speaking here. Philippians 3, look in verse
9. Let me start with verse 8. Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ
and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I might know
Him." Paul, don't you know Him? Paul knew Christ. But Paul is
saying, I want to know Him more and more and more. Because to
know Him is to know God. And the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His
death, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of
the dead. Now listen, verse 12. Not as
though I had already attained, either were already perfect,
but I follow after. And I think Paul could have said,
I follow hard after. I follow after, if that I may
apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus."
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this
one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching
forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the
mark. Well, here's an example for us.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. Paul did not doubt his salvation.
That's not what he's saying. Paul did not doubt his salvation
in Christ, but he never took it for granted. It's too serious a matter. Too
serious a matter. One of the ways that we can let
this slip is by not giving attention to it, by letting it just go,
you know, through one ear and out the other. But here's, now
I want you to get this. Here is a way that it's going
to, here's the way it usually happens. Careless listening. Careless listening. Not really
giving attention to what you're reading or what you're hearing. That's how it slips away. That's
how we can let it slip away. Careless listening. Careless
attention. The cares of this world. Like that stony ground hearer. Remember
the parable of the sower? Riches choked it. Care of this
life choked it, and it brought no fruit to perfection. Careless. Careless. Note the seriousness of it here.
If we let these things slip away, and He's given this to us, that
we would note the seriousness of what's going on right here,
right now. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, and every, listen, every transgression, every, every breach of the law,
every transgression and disobedience, and I tell you what, careless
listening will bring disobedience every time, sooner or later. And disobedience, let me read
it again, if the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every
transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of
reward. I mentioned to you, I think,
in a sermon some weeks ago, that the law of the Sabbath, when
it was given, that there was a man that went out and picked
up sticks on the Sabbath day. And I believe Moses prayed and
asked the Lord what to do about this. And the Lord said, kill
him. Kill him for picking up sticks
on the Sabbath day. If the word spoken by angels,
the law was given on Mount Sinai through the mediation of angels
to Moses. It was given to Moses. And under
that law, every transgression received, it says, a just payment. A just payment. And so it was
steadfast. It was firmly fixed in place. It was unchangeable. No matter
who. No matter who. Was it Uzzah? I believe it was
Uzzah who reached up to steady the ark. Was it Uzzah? God said nobody is to touch that
ark but those priests. And when the oxen stumbled, the
ark started to tilt, and he reached up to steady it. He meant good. He meant good. He didn't want that ark to fall. But God said, don't touch that
ark. Don't do it. That's for the priest.
Only the priest. And God killed him. God killed
him. Every transgression received
a just now. You say, that seems hard. Well,
it might seem hard to me and you, but with God it was a just
recompense. God never gives more than deserved. Never. When someone broke the law, they
got exactly what they deserved. Now this being so, How much sore
punishment? Here's the point. If every transgression received
a just recompense under the law that was given, it says, by angels
to Moses, what you and I have is truth
given by Christ, who is God. In the flesh. He came here and
gave us the gospel. He's the last spokesman. So how
much sore punishment shall he be thought worthy of who neglects
the gospel? Which was spoken by the Lord
Himself. How shall we escape? If we neglect, so great. So great. See, they had it in
types and pictures, but brethren, we have it in a full-blown reality. We have the truth, the gospel,
in full-blown reality. They got it bit by bit, piece
by piece. A picture here, a type there.
We have the Word of God in our laps. And here's what he's saying.
How much sorter punishment? How much worse punishment? Shall he be thought worthy who
neglects the gospel? How shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation? So great! You know, this how shall we escape
implies that there's a need to escape. But what are we to escape? What's
he talking about? He's talking about escaping the
condemning power of sin. the power of Satan, and God's
wrath against sin. When we hear the gospel, and
we hear of God in the person of His Son, coming into this
world, dying for sinners, being buried and raised again for their
justification, and we neglect that, we let that pass on by. Lose interest. That's a good... Lose interest. There's danger
in that. And it can happen. It can happen. That's why He's giving such a
warning. How should we escape? Scripture says, "...the soul
that sinneth shall surely die." But there is salvation in Jesus
Christ through His blood and His righteousness. But if I ignore
that, if I let that just drift by me, if I let that just drift
by me. He's saying this, God's going
to hold you accountable and the punishment is going to be worse
than any of the punishment in the Old Testament. Anything that
happened to them. Now he says here, if we neglect
it. What does it mean to neglect? to neglect it. It means to be
unattended to through carelessness. Unattended to through carelessness. And this happens so easy. It
happens so easy because it happens even while sitting under the
gospel. I think an example is this. We
can live in the same house and neglect one another. Parents
can neglect their kids. Husbands can neglect their wives.
Wives neglect their husbands living under the same roof. Oh, he says, don't neglect it.
Don't neglect what you're hearing. Give serious thought to it. You
know, earnest attention is hard to give on a regular basis, isn't
it? because of the sins of this flesh. It's hard to concentrate
and listen and meditate. David spoke often of meditating
upon the Word of God. It takes effort to do that. It takes effort to think upon
the Lord and to consider these things. There are so many things
to take our attention. That's why Paul said to the Philippians
in his writings to them, set your affection on things above
where Christ sits at God's right hand and not on the things of
this earth. Set your heart, your mind on Jesus Christ. You know, one day, and it's not
that long for all of us, One day, all who believe, faith
is going to give way to sight. One day, I'm going to see Jesus
Christ face to face. I want to give attention to that
now. You know, I think one of the
greatest, and I've thought about this, I don't know how to really
put it into words, But I would love to be able, in this life,
to know Christ, and to be so intimately acquainted with Him,
that when I see Him, there'll be no surprises. It'll be just
like I thought. Just like I knew Him to be. Wouldn't that be wonderful? To
know Him that well, that when you see Him, you're not surprised. because you've known Him that
well all along. Now let's consider what we are
to give Ernest heed to. He says here, so great, so great
is salvation. Salvation, the Scripture says,
is of the Lord. If God has saved you, God has
saved you on purpose. You didn't just show up in the
gospel of priests and you just decided to accept Jesus as your
personal Savior. God saved you on purpose. Scripture says the seeing eye
and the hearing ear is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. It is a salvation from the guilt
of sin, And if you know what sin is, then you know how great
salvation is. If you don't know what sin really
is, if sin really doesn't bother you that much, really bother
you at all, then salvation is not very great to you either.
It's not great to you at all. If your sins are great, salvation
is great. And God is great. And God's grace
is great. It's a salvation from a guilt
of sin, it's a salvation from the reigning power of sin. I often pray, I pray, it's probably
every day, I pray, Lord, let not, let not sin, my sin reign
over me. I pray it every day. Let not
sin have dominion over me. Because I've got plenty of it.
I got plenty of it. And I pray often, let not sin
reign not over me, it will reign in me. Help me to overcome. And I pray this daily. Help me
to overcome indwelling sin. Because that is my problem. And
I need a great God and I need a great salvation for that to
happen. I need it for that to happen.
And then it's great because in Christ we are accepted of God. We are accepted of God. And then it's great because the
Lord of glory spoke it to us. He spoke it to us. Did you hear? We sing the song. Did you hear
what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. All my
sins are gone. Not until the Lord came and preached
the gospel did the mystery that had been hid from ages and from
generations become clear to us. I understand the gospel. Do you
understand the Gospel? I understand the Gospel. God gave that to me. God revealed
that to me. Peter, flesh and blood, did not
reveal this to you, but my Father which is in heaven hath revealed
it to you. Not only did the Lord preach
the Gospel, but He sent men out whom He taught to preach, And it says that He confirmed
their message. He certified. He certified their
message by signs and wonders. In verse 4, and I close. God
also bearing them witness, because they didn't have the complete
written Word of God that you and I have. We don't need miracles. We don't need signs. We have
the Word of God, the complete, full Word of God. I don't want
a miracle. I don't want to see a miracle.
I want to be one. I want to be a miracle. But I don't want to see one.
I'm not looking for a sign or a miracle. When you're younger,
especially in the faith, you're looking for something, some kind
of sign, some kind of... You want to feel saved. I want
to feel saved. But I've learned as I've grown
older, I have God's Word on it. If God denied His Word, He'd
have to deny Himself. Lord, You said in Your Word,
He that cometh to Me, I will know why is cast out. Lord, I
come. I come to Thee. I come to You,
Lord. Save my soul. Have mercy on me. Like I said,
I don't want to see a sign. I don't want to see a miracle.
I want God to take His Word right here and put it in my heart.
Put Your Word in my heart. If my words, He said, abide in
You. Here's the word of warning. Let
me say it again. Let me just read it to you again.
I don't need to say it. Let me read it. Chapter 2, Therefore
we ought to give the more earnest heed, the more serious heed,
or heed really in the Greek is heed more abundantly. That's
what it means. In the Greek it's heed more abundantly. Give them
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, to the gospel
we've heard, lest at any time we let it drift away or drift
past us is what the meaning is. Drift past us. For if the word
spoken by angels was steadfast in the giving of the law to Moses,
and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of
reward, how shall we escape God's wrath if we neglect So great is salvation. So great. Which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord, and then by the disciples, and now 2,000
years later, here I stand. Here I stand preaching it. Take heed to it, brothers. Let's
let we, As he said, we, we, let us, us, us take heed to the things
which we have heard. Go home, sit down, and think
about it. All right, Craig.