Hebrews chapter 2. The book of Hebrews is about Jesus
Christ. Every chapter and verse speaks
of Jesus Christ. And from first to last, it speaks
of Jesus Christ, about who he was and who he is, what he did,
what he said, where he is now. It all speaks of Christ. And
it impresses us. It impresses upon us the urgency
and the absolute necessity of us hearing and believing in this
one that it speaks of. Hebrews chapter 1, look over
here with me. In the first chapter of Hebrews,
the Apostle Paul describes who this is that came to this earth. I know there's a lot of people
talking about a man named Jesus that walked this earth. Well,
the Apostle Paul very clearly and very boldly, by the power
of the Holy Spirit, describes just who this really was that
walked this earth. Not just any old man named Jesus.
And there's a lot of them. And Mexico's full of young men
and older men named Jesus. But right here it says, in verse
1, God, at different times and in different manners, He spoke
to the prophets, unto the fathers by the prophets. But in these
last days, right now, he has spoken unto us by his Son. This is not just a man. This is the Son of God here. This is the Son of God. And he
calls him the heir of all things. Verse 2. He has appointed him
heir of all things, and by whom also he made the world. In other words, this is not just
some Jesus that men talk about, but this is the Lord of glory
in whose hands are all things. Now, even when he was a man upon
this earth, all things were in his hands. He proved that by
the works that he did. He said, the works I do, they
bear witness of who I am. And the Word. Even as a man,
all things were in his hands. But now, it says in verse 3,
he was the brightness of God's glory, the express image or the
perfect likeness of God. In other words, what he's saying
is this was God that walked this earth. This was God. He walked
this earth. And he upholds all things by
the word of his power. And when he had by himself purged
our sins. Christ came down here. You call
his name Jesus because he shall save. He came to do a job which
was to save God's people. God gave this man, this son of
his, a people to save. And he came down here and he
did just that. He did for them what they could
not do. He's called a Savior. They were
lost, he had to come save them, find them. Okay, they were dead,
he had to come give them life. Did he do it? Scripture says
he did. By himself. Came down here and
purged, or that is, put away all the sins of all of God's
people. Purged our sins. And then he sat down, the Scripture
says after he did that, he sat down right beside God Almighty. He says this is who He is. He's
God. This is what He did. He came down here to get rid
of sin, to make an end of sin by establishing righteousness
and giving that to His people and then by bearing the punishment
that sin was due and putting away sin, paying for it, paying
for the punishment. And right now where He is is
seated at the right hand of God. And verse 8, all the way through
verse 4, through verse 8, he's talking about who this is, the
Son. Verse 8, he says, You're God. Thy throne, O God, is forever. He's talking about God here.
That's who he's talking about. Now listen. Verse 10, he says,
You, Lord, You in the beginning. He's talking about Christ. You
have laid the foundation of the earth. You made this world. This
Jesus that walked this earth made the earth that he walked
upon. That's who it was. That's who he is. He's not just
a man leaning over the banisters of heaven, just fretting and
fussing because men won't let him do something. He wasn't letting
anybody do something when he was on the earth. He said, you
don't take my life from me. I lay it down to myself. He said
that to Pilate. He said, you have no power over
me at all. He said, I give you the power. But he wasn't any
more helpless then, or now, than he was then. He is the Lord,
and in the beginning he laid the foundation of the earth.
This man who walked the earth made the earth he walked upon.
Now in verse 11 he says, now these things are going to perish.
See it? These things will perish, but
Christ remains. We may perish, but Christ remains. You see that? Are you looking
at it with me? We may perish. They shall perish. But Christ
remains. Now, what am I saying here? What
I'm saying here, what I'm trying to impress upon everybody in
here, is who this was. Who this was that walked this
earth. Not just a man. Now, history
tells us about a man that walked this earth. But he's more than
a man. He walked this earth, and now he's gone. Where is he? Is he dead like everybody else? Where is my father, my mother,
my brother and sister, my past loved ones who passed? Where
are they? I don't know. But I know where this man is.
I know who this was. And I know where he is now according
to this scripture. He's not just a man. He's the Lord of glory. He's sitting on a throne right
now. And we're right here. Every one of us is sitting right
here. in his hands to do with as he pleases. That's the seriousness
of what I'm saying here is we best be listening, and this is
what Paul is going to go to say here. We best pick up our ears
here. What's said here? What'd he say?
What'd he do? What's this all about? There's
a lot of people still looking for visions And dreams and signs
they always have religious people, people, natural people looking
for signs for wonders from heaven, waiting on God to speak. Right. There's a lot of people in this
world who would if they might ask this, well, if God would
just if somebody come back from the from the dead, I'd believe. I don't believe this Bible, but
somebody came back from the dead, I'd believe he did. Well, if God would speak, now
that'd do it. If God Almighty would speak to
me, if the powerful voice from heaven would speak, then I'd
believe it. He did. Well, if only I knew the truth.
If I only really knew the way, the truth, and how I could have
this everlasting. He is. Christ said, I am. The way. The truth. And the life. Look over at 2 Peter with me. 2 Peter chapter 1. Now there's
a multitude. A multitude. I want to try to
slow my delivery down a little. I've got a problem. I get so
much information. I want to tell it all. I want
to tell you everything I know in one message. 2 Peter chapter 1. A multitude of false prophets
out there. are forging lies about God. They're lying on God Almighty
and signs and wonders. You ever see this guy, oh, what's
his name? Up in, oh, what's his name? There's
a bunch of them. But anyway, they're all forging
these signs and these wonders about healing people. The only
people they can hear are people supposedly can't hear and people
are sitting in wheelchairs. Nobody knows where they came
from or whatever. Why don't they go to the hospital where there's
a lot of sick, really sick people. Go to the cancer center. Go down
there and go to, better yet, like Peter, like Paul, go to
the morgue. Then we'll believe them, won't
we? Go down to the morgue. Go over here to Arrington Busty
Funeral Home and a man laying there in a casket, tell him to
get up. If he does, I'll listen to that fella. I ain't going
to listen to a fellow just because he comes to church with a brace
on his neck and says, I've had a stiff neck for eighty-four
years now and can't move it. Take it off! I ain't going to
believe that. But there's a lot of fellows
forging these lies and these wonders and so forth, and a lot
of them are even saying that God's talking to them. God's
talking to them. God holding private conversations
with these fellows. Nobody else, just them. Jimmy
Swagger said that. God told me. I was the one. Don't
you believe it. 2 Peter 1, look at verse 16 with
me. Peter said, now we haven't followed
cunningly devised fables. And folks, let me just tell you
the truth here. I think you know it. But these
fellas sit around and cunningly devise their trickery and their
gimmicks and their ways. And they hire people to come
in and do these things. They've already, some of them
have been exposed in this way. They do it. They do it. It's
not of God. Because they speak not according
to My Word, Scripture says. And they're not. They're not
even using the Bible. Hardly. We haven't done that, Peter says,
when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We were eyewitnesses of. Peter
says, Terry, Peter says, we saw Him. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. We saw this man, Jesus Christ,
on a mountain, transfigured, turned into a being of light.
When he received from God, we heard a voice, verse 17, from
heaven that says, This is my Son. What that must have sounded
like. How that struck fear into them. This is my beloved Son
in whom I am well. We heard this. We saw this. When this voice came from heaven,
we were with him. Verse 19, But now, listen, He
says we have a more sure word of prophecy. What's he talking
about? He was talking about the Old
Testament scriptures right there. And the same applies to us right
now. I don't care what's going on out there, what's being said,
what these fellows are so-called seeing. We've got a more sure
word of prophecy. Can't believe what they say they're
seeing or hearing. You can believe this right here.
This has been around a long time before they were, and it'll be
around a long time after they're gone. But we have a more sure
word, and he says in verse 19, that we'd do well to take heed. Now listen. Verse 20. No prophecy of scriptures
of any personal or private interpretation. No man came up with it on his
own, and no man using his own interpretation about it. It came
by God. Now, back to Hebrews 2, and this
is exactly what Paul is saying in Hebrews 2, verse 1. Look at
it with me. Hebrews 2, verse 1. He's saying
the same thing. He says, Now we ought to give
the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest
at any time we let them slip. He's saying, Because of who this
was, and I say to you this morning, because of who this is, the Lord
Jesus Christ. What I'm saying this morning,
what I'm saying this morning is not just, I'm not taking up
time here. I'm not just trying to get a
sermon out of the way. Spend that 45 minutes. It's a thing to do on Sunday
morning. I'm talking about the Lord of glory and whose hands
we are in right now and who can dispose of as he will. And he
said something. He did some things, and Paul
says, we better be listening. Now what he's saying? We ought
to. Oh my. We ought to give the more
earnest heed to the things we have heard. Now what have we
heard here? What have we heard in this place? We've heard who
God is. Everybody had. We have. We've heard who God is. Holy. Sovereign. Now, if God is just
all love, like a silly old granddaddy up in heaven, y'all ain't got
a thing to worry about. I mean, really, if God loves
you and Christ died for you, let's quit. Let's go home and
watch football. If that be the case, we ain't
got anything to worry about. Don't y'all ever just go on and
leave. But no, God is in the heavens.
He's holy, righteous, and sovereign. And another thing, We're sinful,
wretched, condemned by nature creatures. We've heard that God
is holy and we've heard that we're sinners in the hands, like
Jonathan Edwards preached on, sinners in the hands of an angry
God. God hated the scripture. What
have you heard? Scripture says he's angry with the workers of
iniquity. He hated all workers of iniquity. That's what we've
heard, right? And what does that make you want
to do? Pop your gun and pop your galluses.
It ought to make us prick our ears up and say, oh, whoa, wait
a minute. God's God. And I'm a sinner condemned
by God, by nature. And then we've heard this stuff.
We've heard that God sent His Son down here. That we're condemned,
we're dying, we're lost, we're without God, we're without hope,
without strength. God's on the throne. He's going
to wipe out the earth. But God sent His Son. Oh, did
He? Why? What'd he say? What'd he do? Where is he now? What was this
all about? This is what the gospel says. This is what I'm doing
right here. I'm telling you right now. About
your only hope, I'm not preaching a sermon. I got a message from God's Word
about what his sons came to do. Now he says we ought to give
earnest heed. Earnest heed. Because it's life
and death. It's life and death, it really
is. The reason we can't, the reason we don't give earnest
heed is because it's not impressed upon us the seriousness of it. The reason we don't pick up our
ear, now if we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that tomorrow morning
at 7 a.m. this thing is going to be over, how would that regulate our hearingness
right now? This room wouldn't be empty.
Everybody be fighting for a front row seat. Fighting for a front
row seat. And this is the reason Paul in
Compassion says we ought to and we ought to give more earnest
heed to the thing. Because it is life and death.
And let me say this. It might be 7 a.m. You can tell you're being a sensationalist
preacher, you're trying to scare us. Did you read Proverbs 1 with
me? It might be 12 a.m. It really might. Now, I'm not
just trying to scare anybody. I'm just telling it like it is,
right? Knowing the time, knowing the time. What time? That the
time is short. And all we need to do is look
around us at world events and so forth. Only a fool would not
recognize something is happening. And I'm in the midst of all this
and it could go any minute. And we ought to give them more
earnest heed, he said, lest at any time, look at it, he said,
the more earnest heed to the things which we've heard, lest
at any time we let them slip. Now what is it to let these things
slip? It's what somebody's doing right
now. Right now, it's somebody thinking
about something else. Do you see how piercing the word
of God is? It says it divides the Son, it
pierces the heart. To let it slip is right now what
somebody's doing, thinking about the roast in the oven or something.
Think about what you're going to do tomorrow, right now. That's
what it is to let them slip. To let these things slip is to
be taken up with other things. Now many, if not most of us,
are so taken up with this world and things in it, aren't we?
And we let these things just slip on side. You know, Sunday
morning we come, we sit and we listen. Good thing, I believe
that. And go on for six days a week
or five anyway. We just totally gung-ho 100%
for the world, you know. Wasn't that a good message? Oh,
yeah, I remember. I think I remember. That's to
let it slip. Taking up so much with this world
and the things in it has fed our affection, our time, our
energy, our efforts, our thoughts upon the things of this world
and not on the things above. That's to let this slip. I wonder about people who never
read this book all week. I really, I have to wonder. I don't know the hearts, but
I just have to wonder, man, if that person knows God at all. And like we said in the Bible
study this morning, if it pierces your heart, oh, so be it. Get
in the closet. Say, Lord, God, use it. I mean,
we're talking about eternal things here. We'd say we have an interest
in them. To let these things slip is to
move away from the gospel. The gospel is not everywhere. Some of you have found that out.
You go off on a vacation or whatever, or you've lived in other places.
The gospel is not everywhere. I don't care what men do say,
what they claim to preach, it's not everywhere to be found, is
it? It's here and there, here and there. And to move away from
the gospel for whatever reason, there is no good reason. There
is no legitimate reason. There is no biblical reason for
moving away from the gospel. If you can go to a place where
the gospel is, fine. But to leave, to move away from
the gospel, not hear the gospel, you've let this thing slip. To
let this thing slip is to remain hard. Now, listen to this. Boy,
this, please listen. Every ear in here listen to me.
To let these things slip is to hear these things Sunday, after
Sunday, after Wednesday, after Sunday, after Wednesday, after
article, after study, after, after, after. Keep hearing it.
Keep hearing it. And never believe, trust, and
confess Christ. Most of the time, people who
are saved by the preaching of the word, most of the time, I've
talked to I got my information from men that have been around
a long time. Most of the time, those who are going to be disciples
of Christ are those who hear the word, like in Acts, all the
way through Acts, believe it, receive it, confess Christ, not
sit around. You know, after you've heard
the word over and over again, it's just monotonous like a drone
in your ears. God does intervene, like Ron
and Trish and some people. He does intervene. It's not hopeless.
But I'm telling you, it's almost hopeless for somebody to sit
here time and time again and never believe Christ and trust
Him. That's to let it slip. Let it
slip. He said, now listen, young people,
every young person in here, He said, now you remember thou,
thy Creator in the days of your youth. Remember now, thy Creator,
in the days of your youth, before the evil days come nigh. It's coming a day when you're
going to be so enwrapped in this world that this is going to be
so old-fashioned and so ridiculous and so unappealing that you're
going to say, I want that old stuff. Mom, Dad made me go to
church. And the evil days and the world and everything in it,
this evil world is going to grab ahold of you. If I've seen it,
John, once, I've seen it a hundred times growing up where I did,
a large church. Young people grow up under the
gospel, hear it time and time and time again, get a marrying
age, find them an unbelieving wife, and they're gone. You never see them again unless
they have a baby and bring that baby so everybody can see the
baby or whatever. If I've seen it once, I've seen
it a hundred times. This is what it is to manage
to flip, young people. Do you hear what I'm saying? I'm being true to your heart
and your soul right now. You leave the gospel, for whatever
reason, you're going to be damned. I didn't say that. God's Word
says that. I'm saying it out of love and
concern and compassion for your eternal soul. And as a man, I say, please,
please, would you hear me? Now, he says, now, if the word
spoken by angels, verse 2, angels one time declared to men, angels
appeared to people in the Old Testament Scripture. Now, if
the word spoken by angels and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompensive reward, In other words, when
the angels came down to the children of Israel and talked to men and
so forth, and they just went on their merry way and they were
damned, they were condemned for not believing God speaking through
the prophets. Verse three. How shall we escape? How shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation? So great a salvation, how should
we escape? You know, it's one thing to refuse
the messenger. It's another thing to refuse
the king who sent the message. Let me illustrate this, it's
one thing to run a stop sign. OK, you're driving down the car,
driving down the road in your car and you see a stop sign,
you ain't going to pay no attention to that. Go on through. Now,
a policeman gets behind you. That's one thing to run a stop
sign. It's quite another to try to run away from that policeman.
See what I'm saying? You're going to do time. If he
stops you, and he will, he will stop you in the name of the law,
you're going to do time. You're going to jail. That's
one thing that despises this preacher right here, and I can
see very easily how you could. I'm a despicable little fellow.
Unpolished, uneducated, and this and that and the other. It's
one thing to despise me, but this is not what I'm saying here.
This is the word of God. It's one thing to say, I ain't
going to hear old Paul Mahan again. I don't like the way he
is. I don't either. I don't either. But it's quite another to refuse
what God says. It's quite another thing to refuse
what God Almighty says. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation? How? Why is it a great salvation,
by the way? Verse 3. So great a salvation,
he talks about. And I wish that I could, I wish
that I could tell this like he is. Why is it great? Because
God's the one that planned it. Everything God does is great.
God is great. We prayed that as little children.
God is great. God is good. Everything God does
is great. He does it in a great way. Why is salvation so great? Because God planned it. He didn't
have to, but he did it. God planned it, and the wisdom
of this thing, the mysterious wonder and majesty and glory
of taking a worm and making him a son of God, the wisdom of it,
it's great. Eye hath not seen, ear hath not
heard. It's great because of the cost
of it, what it cost God to save us. The blood of his son. Send his son down here. It's
great because of the cost of it. You're not redeemed with
a corruptible thing from your vain conversation, such as silver
and gold, but with the blood of God's son. It took God's son
thirty-three and a third agonizing years to work this salvation
out. And then hanging on the cross
for six, what must have felt like an eternity, six hours of
agony. bearing the weight and the burden
of all the sins of God's people. Tremendous, it's great salvation
because of the cost of it, and because of the power of it, because
it's able, it's able to change these vile bodies. It's able
to translate us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of light. And the reason we can't enter into how great it is is
because we're so dark. The reason I can't tell about
it is because I'm so earthly bound. Someday we're going to
see how great it is. But he exhorts us right now that
we ought not to neglect so great a salvation. How shall we escape? Please listen to me. Nobody here has arrived yet. Not even the preacher ain't there
yet, like Paul said in Philippians 3. It's not as though I've already
attained. Nobody in here is in heaven yet,
right? Say we're in Christ, preacher.
Prove it. Well, I trust him. Prove it. This is the reason we ought to
give an earnest heed to these things, less than any time we
live. Any time, any time. You know, the stony ground here
in the parable of the sower. The sower went forth to sow,
and he sowed the seed, and some fell by the wayside on stony
ground. They received it for a time,
the scripture said. It's people that receive the word for a time
and spring up. Hey, I found the gospel, love
you, brother, gospel, Christ, trust. Sun beats down, trials, tribulations,
time rolls by, gone. We've already seen it here
in the two short years I've been here. Solid, long-standing members. What makes us think we're not
next, huh? This is as serious as what I'm
saying this morning, see? I want your attention. Because
there's no root in them, all right? No root in them. Now,
he says, this is what he's saying, the seriousness of all this,
that if those people back then, how much more us, the Son of
God came in space, and the gospel's being preached time and time
and time again, Sunday after Sunday, after Wednesday, the
gospel of your salvation, so great a salvation, is being proclaimed. And he says in verse 4, God used
to bear witness with them by signs and wonders. How about
us? We've got plenty of signs and wonders in our own lives.
Look around. Ain't nobody in here been without
a meal. Nobody in here been without a
nice place to stay. Nobody in here been lacking anything.
We've got plenty of signs. How about the creation? Look
around. We've got plenty of signs and wonders, don't we? It ought
to make us believe. Now, he says in verse 5, the
angels whom he put in subjection the world to come, under the
angels he hath not put in subjection the world to come. In other words,
the angels who first talked to men, they're not in charge, but
one, verse 6, but one is. The angels spake the Old Testament
and so forth. They spake and the prophets and
so forth, but now God spoke. Oh, how I wish that I could get
this across right now. Now, God has spoken. Do you remember
the parable Christ gave about the landowner, the husbandman
who sent his, who You remember it. Shake your head
if you did. He sent his servants down there
to reap the harvest from him and they killed him one by one. Christ talked about the prophets
killing the prophet. Then he said, well, I sent my son down
there. He'll reverence, thus reverence my son. So he sent
his son down here. Hey, I'm the son. And I'm here. God is here now. And this is
God's planet. You belong to God and everything
in it. And bow to me, give me what's coming to me." He killed
him. Do you remember what he said that
that landowner was going to do? He was going to wipe out the
mess. And that's what this is saying.
That's what the Word of God is saying. God sent His Son. He
spoke. He left. He's gone. He's coming
back. He's going to wipe it out. Right? We killed His Son. We
ran our job. We ran off. How shall we escape if we neglect
our only hope? How shall we escape? But God made him just a little
lower than the angels. Verse 7, this is the reason men
have no regard, no respect for the gospel and talk about Jesus.
All they know about is a man named Jesus. A prophet, even
the disciples walking on that road to Emmaus. A prophet, mighty
in word and deed and so forth, but he was God. They were ignorant
of who this was, as they are today. God made him a little
lower than the angels, that is, a little inferior. He was bound
to this earth, but he's right now. He's crowned with glory
now. He's not limited now. He's not
a man anymore now. I mean, just all man. He's Lord. And there's nothing left. Look
at that, verse 8. He's put all insubjection under him. There's
nothing that's not under him. That means me. And we don't yet see it. We don't
see it because we see through a glass so dimly, but we see
Jesus. This is all we see, verse 9.
We see Jesus made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, but he's crowned with glory. Now, in honor, crowned
with glory and honor, the reason he came, though, the reason he
came was because he had to if he was going to save us, poor
little worm. He had to become a worm to reveal God to us, to
reveal our state. And that he by the grace of God
should taste death for every man, that he by the grace of
God should taste this this death. Now, listen to me. Christ was a man. But more than
a man. More than a man. But he had to
become a man to die. God can't die. A man can. Man can't live perfectly. But God can. So God became a
man. But right now, he's no longer
just a man. He's king of kings and lord of
lords. And according to this grace of
God, this salvation by grace, Christ came and died for every
man that God gave to him. I won't have any trouble with
that verse there. If you had a Greek Bible, it
would show you clearly that the word man is not even in it. The
word man is not even found in the original text. The word man is son in the original. Does this make sense? Look at
verse 10. Because Christ came down here, it's becoming to him.
He came and it became him. For whom are all things and by
whom are all things in doing such a thing. It's just like
him. That's what he's saying here.
It's becoming to him. It's fitting of him to do such
a thing. It's fitting of God. It's just
like God to do such a thing for his glory. And since all things
are for him and by him, just like God to show his mercy and
his grace, he had to come down here and bring us to him, because
we couldn't get to him. He had to come down and bring
us to him. It's just like God. It's becoming
to him. It's a gospel that's becoming
to the glory and the mercy and the love and the grace of God
in coming down here and bringing many sons unto glory. To bring
them back, like he said in the Hebrew passage, Behold what manner
of love God has bestowed upon us that we should be called sons
of God. Bringing many sons unto glory
by sending such a captain, see that? To make the captain of
their salvation perfect through suffering. It's just like God
to send such a one as himself. It's just like God to come down
Himself, to become our Captain, Christ His Son, to come down
here and to perfect this work. Perfect it, because we are totally,
completely imperfect. It's just like God to finish
what He started. It's just like God to do such
a thing. It's becoming to Him. This gospel, John, the gospel
of God's sovereign mercy and grace and electing love, predestinating
power, It's just like God, isn't it? It's just like God. It's becoming to God, just like
all the Old Testament scriptures. Very becoming to the character
of God, and so is this gospel. Very becoming to him, and to
come down here and get us because we couldn't get to him. And to
bring us, us worms, us pitiful, wretched creatures, all the way
to go over him and make us sons out of him, just like God did
such a thing. Just like him. and to send his son, of all people,
not an angel, not a seraphim, but a son down here, a captain. We need a good captain now. We need a perfect captain. I
mean an all-powerful captain. Ah, boy, just like God to do
such a thing. Look at verse 11. For both he
that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all one. How does he do this? Be quick. How did God do this? How did
Christ do it? How did Christ make us sons and
perfect this work? How did he do it? Three things. Remember this. Don't let it slip. This is the gospel. Satisfaction,
substitution, sanctification. Three S's. You've heard of the
three R's? This is three S's. Satisfaction. God's law has to
be satisfied. Now you or somebody going to
do it for me. Satisfaction. Christ did. He
came down and satisfied the law of God on my behalf. Substitution. Then my sins have to be punished. I have to pay for them or somebody
else for me. That's what Christ did. He paid
my debt. He took my place. Substitute.
Sanctification. Then we have to be made different. We have to be changed. it be
set apart from the rest of the people, and men made like unto
him, made like God, and taken to heaven, rounded up, wrapped
up, washed up, cleaned up, sanctified. That's what Christ did. He said,
I sanctify myself, and I give them that's perfect righteousness,
and I send my Spirit to finish the job. And he's going to do
it. And for this cause, verse 11, this is a wonderful verse.
For this cause, he's not ashamed to call them brethren. For what
cause? Because they're wonderful, glorious,
and lovely, faithful, obedient servants of mine? No. For this
cause. Because he made us so. Because
of what he did. Because of what he did, he's
not ashamed to call. Now, if he drug us into heaven
like we are right now, he doesn't need to own us. Some might say,
what's that smell? That's old Henry. No, but Henry's
going to be, he's going to smell good when he gets there. By the
time he gets there, you don't think so, do you? But by the
time he gets there, he's going to look pretty good. He's going
to look like Christ, because Christ sanctified him. And for
this cause, because of the covenant of God, the direction of God,
and because Christ did what He did, and because He's going to
take them all the way back, He ain't ashamed to call me brother.
My, my. Jesus Christ, brother. I don't even bear any resemblance
to Him. Do you bear any resemblance to Him? He says we do. My, my. I ain't ashamed. You know, I'm ashamed sometimes
on Him. And there's nothing shameful
about him. And there's everything shameful about me. I'm a creature
of shame. He ain't ashamed of me. How in
the world can I be ashamed of him? The psalm says, "...ashamed of him
whom angels praise." And again, he says it again,
"...I'll put my trust in him." And again, he's going to say,
Behold, to the Father. He's going to present us in the
end and say, Behold, here they are. Aren't they pretty? Behold, I and the children you
gave me. Present us to the Father, faultless,
holy, unblameable, unreprovable. God, so great is salvation. How shall we escape? That's where
we start. How should we escape? When he
presents us, this is the only way we're going to get in, is
if Christ takes us in on his arm. Takes us in. Here they are! Father. You've done a good job,
son. Hey, look, come on in here, little
bitties. Gather around me here, little children. Hey, look just
like my boy. That's about the way it's going
to be. Yeah, gather around here. He looks up and he sees one over
there by himself. Climbing over the fence. Got
an old dirty ragged coat on and everything. Got a sneaky look
on his face. Who's that? Christ said, now what am I? I never knew him. Now get this
guy out of here. Thief! Robber! He think he can
come in with Christ behind him. How shall we escape if we don't
come to Christ and get in behind him and hug up to him? How? We won't. We won't. Now, for as much then, because
the children, and this is a comforting passage, verse 14, because we're
partakers of flesh and blood, he himself took part of the same.
that through death he might destroy him that had power of death.
That is the devil. We feel like the devil's got
control of us. No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. He's on a leash. He's got his
bulldog. He's on a leash. He's not going
to tear you to shreds. He'll scare you a little bit.
But he came down. My captain, who's all powerful
and vanquished the foe, defeated him, put his foot on the of the
devil. Ain't nobody can put their foot
on the devil, resist the devil really, but him, he did. A strong
man, stronger than the one, armed, came down here, my captain, and
delivered me from that old snake, that old foe, and delivered them
through fear of death, who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. That's what he said, too, when
he rose from the grave. You don't have to fear that place.
Somebody said that cold, dark, damp tomb. Christ, after he left
there, it became fragrant and sweet and bright and light. A
light went on inside the dark tomb. Christ says that he came
back from the grave and presented himself to his people, you and
me. He says, now you don't have,
some of you that are real close, you don't have to fear it. Christ
says so. Why, how can he say, he'd been
there. If I tell you something, and I've experienced it, you
ought to be able to believe it, right? Well, Christ said that
you don't need to fear death. Why? I've been there. I've been
there. Death wears you a sting. Christ
removed it. The sting of death is, sin is
death. The grave is supposed to bring
us eternal damnation, but Christ removed that sting, that penalty
of eternal death. Grave bears your victory. In
other words, is the grave going to keep us in there? Are we just
going to rot and die and no more to be heard of? No! When we go
in the grave, we go up to God. Don't need to be afraid, he said.
To deliver us who through fear of this death were all ways subject
to this bondage and bound to the world. See that? Bound to
the world and everything in it. For verily he didn't take on
him the nature of angels. He didn't take on angels, thank
God. You know, there were a group of angels that fell. God didn't
save any of them. But he took on the poor seed
of Abraham. Poor, pitiful, little, scraggly, nobody's out there. A little
handful. A little remnant. Why? It's just like him to do something
like that. To get the more glory. To get the more glory. To show. It's not because of might and
strength and because you're more than all the people, more beautiful.
No, I'm just going to show how I can take a little band and
turn them into a world without number. And in all things, blessed
be the God, in all things it behooved Him, it behooved Him
to be made like unto His brethren. Thank God Almighty that He might
be a merciful and faithful. He knows our frame. I started
out by warning you and admonishing you and so forth, but boy, this
ought to comfort you. He came down here and it behooved
Him. It's just like Him to do this,
to be made like us, to be touched with these feelings of our infirmity,
that He might be a merciful, merciful, compassionate God.
He knows our frame. Psalm 103, 13, you like so well,
Nancy? My favorite too. Like a father
pitying his children. pitying his children. Oh, he
has mercy upon us. Compassion. He knows what we're
going through. In things pertaining to God,
too, it's just like him to make reconciliation for the sins of
his people. I'll take care of him. I'll take
care of him. I'll handle this. I'll handle
this. And that he himself has suffered. being tempted. He was tempted
and tried in all points. He was suffered. He's able to
help you that are tempted, because he knows your brain, knows your
need. And he provided so great a salvation. So great a salvation. And that's the reason that he
starts out. Time doesn't allow to go into that like it should
be. That's the reason he starts out by saying, how shall we escape?
Not only because of the holiness and the justice of God. How shall
we escape if we neglect such a thing? Not only because of
God's holiness and justice that will rain down, and His wrath
that will rain down, but because of the mercy of God. We sin against
the love and the mercy and the grace of God. He sends His Son
down. You know, He warned us and warned
us by the prophets, and don't say that God's trying to do anything.
It's just the way he did it. He sent prophets to warn us,
creation, everything in it. We're all without excuse, and
his son down here talked to us. He goes back, and that's what
Proverb 1 says. Now he said, now, you're going to refuse all
this? It's not going to be anything? It's nothing to you? Well, then
you're going to be nothing to God. That's what it says. Is it nothing
to you, all you that pass by? All that God does, is it nothing?
Does it mean nothing to you? You despise the gospel of God,
despite of the spirit of grace? I just don't. Come on. Neither
will God have anything to do with you, do you? Henry, by his
grace, by his mercy, it's you and I that keep listening, keep
seeking the Lord. If we don't know Him today, I
know you feel the same way. If you don't know Him today,
you want to know Him now, don't you? If you're not in Christ
yet, you want in Him, don't you? Right now. And how that should
warn those in here who really don't have any confidence of
an interest in Christ. Now's the time. Today is the
day of salvation. Today. You'll hear His voice. Give them more in his tea. Hear
his voice. Harden not your heart in the provocation, or you'll
be suddenly cut off from that without remedy." OK. Sherry, come up and let's
sing a closing hymn. Let's sing, Pass Me Not. While
on others out calling, don't pass me by. At the risk of sounding evangelical,
well, I am. I want to be evangelical. At the risk of being like the
rest of these fellows, I do say, though, that he is calling this
gospel right now, this morning. Calling you. Calling. Yes, it is. I hope in God's purpose it's
effectual to pierce us, and I hope he gives us the ears to hear
his voice. It's up to him that you've come
to Christ. Ask me not, O gentle Savior,
hear my humble cry, While on others Thou art calling, do not
pass me by. Verse three is the last. Trusting
only in thy merits, good and You. Say. Say. While all others thou art calling,
do not pass me by.