To minister to us in music, I
have always loved music that's honoring to our
God. I say always, ever since God
taught me the gospel. And we have such excellent, excellent
musicians, people who lead us in worship service of singing,
Joe and Kevin when he fills in for him, and those who present
specials to us. We're just so blessed by all
of y'all, and we want you to know we appreciate you. And I
was sitting there thinking after Aaron finished praying for us,
I'm thankful for these men who read scripture to us and lead
us to the throne of grace. I ask them ahead of time and they
always are diligent in reading, picking out a passage of scripture
unless I give them something to read, assign them something
to read. And when they read to us, Ron
reads every Lord's Day morning, and various men, Sunday night,
Wednesday night, give evidence of having spent some time reading
the scripture over and then leading us to the throne of grace, and
I'm thankful. Years ago, I learned a valuable
lesson. I've learned a lot of lessons
over the years, of course, but when I went into the pastorate,
in fact, I told Brother Mahan, pitied the church that has a
24-year-old preacher. That was me. But I used to just ask men to
pray at random. And the ushers would come forward,
and I'd say, brother, so-and-so, lead us in prayer. Well, I hadn't
been in Rocky Mount too long. As in every service, Sunday morning,
Sunday night, we'd receive an offering, and I called on people
to pray. And one Sunday morning, I called
on this brother to pray. And he had led us in prayer. I know he did for my dad quite
often, and he did for me. But he really struggled. And he came up to me that evening. He said, I sure hated that you
called on me to pray. I said, why is that? He said, well, what you don't
know is that when I got out of the car, out in the parking lot,
I slammed the car door on my thumb. He said, and I'm sorry,
I said a few choice words. He said, and I tell you, my thumb
just throbbed. And I come in here, and I'm so
upset. And I sit down, and then you
call on me to pray. He said, please, don't ever do
that again. And I haven't. I do learn. I learn lessons. Sometimes I learn them the hard
way, but I do learn a few lessons. So I learn to ask men to have
some preparation. And they always do. And I'm thankful. And I'm thankful
you're all here this evening. I know that it's our duty, it's
our responsibility to come and worship. And having said that, I'm grateful
somebody would come out to hear what I've got to say with stammering
lips. I try to honor Christ Jesus. Look in the Hebrews, Hebrews,
the second chapter. If God would enable me this evening,
I want to speak to you on the most important subject And it is so great salvation. Hebrews, the second chapter.
And really, I just want to take a part of a verse. I don't normally
just do this, but look at part of the third verse of Hebrews,
chapter 2. How shall we escape if we neglect
whoever the writer is I suppose most people believe it was the
Apostle Paul. Of that we're not absolutely
certain, but I am certain that the Spirit of God inspired whoever
it was that wrote it. But he says this, how shall we
escape? This is an inspired writer, and
he puts himself amongst all of us. He doesn't say, how shall
you escape? How shall those people escape?
He says, how shall we escape? How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? Our subject is so great salvation. I know that the scriptures give
us a lot of information about salvation. And the word of God
reveals that God has a five-fold purpose in this great work of
salvation. I'll give them to you very quickly
as an introduction. Number one, God is determined
to put all enemies under his feet, and that's included in
this salvation. God is determined to put all
of his enemies under his feet. First Corinthians 15, 25 says,
for he must reign, Christ must reign till he hath put all enemies
under his feet. God has arranged all things so
that evil will be confounded and all of his enemies shall
be destroyed And all of his people will be saved. Now we've got
a lot of enemies against our souls. Enemies that we can't
deal with. Enemies that are much too great
for us. First of all, our own selves. I'm my greatest enemy,
and I got news for you, you're a greatest enemy, because you're
a sinner. But our Lord's gonna put all
enemies under his feet. That includes sin. In fact, He's
already put it away by His death upon the cross. There's the enemy
of Satan. He's against us. There's the
enemy of the world. But God has already ordained
in this great salvation. That every enemy is going to
be put under the feet of Christ Jesus. And there's coming a day
when there's not going to be any more evidence of sin. Not
in you, and not in me, not in any of God's people. There's
coming a day of judgment. God's going to cast all the goats
into hell. Babylon false religion is going
to fall. And you and me, who are God's
people, We won't have any more effects from sin. That'll be
gone forever. And that'd be a wonderful, wonderful
everlasting day when we don't have any more effects from sin.
So the Scriptures reveal that God's determined to put all enemies
under the feet of Christ Jesus. Secondly, God has also purposed
or determined that He's going to bring back His creation. from the ruins of the fall. That's included in salvation.
You see, all of God's creation has been blighted by the fall
of Adam. Everything's been affected. I know there's still some beautiful,
beautiful places in the world, in America and throughout the
world. People visit. But there is that ongoing stench
of evil that's in everything. Everything's blighted by sin.
I'm not much of a gardener. I did plant a few tomato plants. Actually, a couple of the men
came over. And you know what? Blight got
them. Well, I had some on the back porch, and somehow that
blight that was in my side yard, it just snuck around and found
the tomatoes on the back porch. And the blight got them, too. And I tell you, they're pitiful.
And I'm saving them because I've got two tomatoes on them. They're
really expensive tomatoes, I'll tell you. Blight. Everything
in this world is blighted by sand. blighted by sin. But, there's going to be a new
heaven and a new earth someday wherein dwells righteousness. Right? Wherein dwells righteousness. And all of the people of God,
we're going to dwell in this new land. And it'll be wonderful. Everybody is saved by God's grace.
That's why we read in Romans chapter 8, all of creation groans,
travails. Why is all creation in such a
sad shape? Why are there weeds and all that
kind of stuff and thorns? It's man's fault. It's on account
of sin. But one day that's going to all
be gone. That falls under this great salvation
as as well. And then thirdly, it's God's
purpose to save his people from every effect of sin. I know that.
Grace was decreed for a chosen multitude back before God made
the world. God ordained a people for his
salvation. God made a man, created a man,
And from that man would come a race of people. And among that
race of people, among all of mankind, there's a special people. There's nothing special in and
of themselves. God made them special. God made
a difference. God put a difference. That's
what's said back in the book of Exodus between the Egyptians
and the Israelites. Moses says, God has put a difference. between the Israelites and the
Egyptians. And I'm telling you, God's made
a difference. I know we're all the same by
nature, but by God's grace, some of us, not everybody, but many
of us are different. In fact, we read in 1 Corinthians
chapter 4, who made you different from another? Why are you different? Here you are this evening. You
want to worship God. You want to listen to the Gospel
of God's grace. You want to exalt the Lord Jesus
Christ. You don't believe in free willism.
You don't believe that salvation is due to man's decision. You
believe in the grace of God and the efficiency of the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of the Spirit of God within
us. Why are you different? Because
I tell you, if you believe that, you are different. You're different
from the rest of religion. Because there's only two religions
in the world. The religion of works and the
religion of grace. Why is it that you embrace, you
love the religion of grace? Because God made you different.
God made you different. That's what I was trying to say
this morning there from Revelation chapter 8. Talk about silence
in heaven about the space of a half hour. The people of God
reflecting upon this, the only difference between me and that
soul screaming, screaming in agony in everlasting damnation
is the grace of God. That's the only difference. Why
am I different? Why am I different? Why do I,
when I read the Word of God, why do I see things differently
than other preachers? who don't preach the gospel.
Grace makes the difference. Grace has made the difference
in you. God has purposed to save his
people from every effect of sin. He chose a people unto salvation
and then God purposed to do something about our sinfulness. And the
only thing he could do about it in order to save us in a just
way was that that sin be heaped on the Savior, that all of our
indebtedness be charged to his account. He got to take it all. And then he'd have to bear the
full force of the wrath of God. That's the only way God could
save sinners. That's the only way justice could be satisfied. Don't ever pay any attention
to anybody who says, well, God could have saved sinners any
way He wanted to, but this is what He landed on. His only begotten
Son would die in the stead of sinners. Well, that's an awful
thing to say. That's charging God with the
needless death of His Son. Our Lord Jesus, He had to die. He said the Son of Man must be
lifted up. He must be lifted up. That's
the only way God could be just and justify the ungodly. That's
the only way God could remain righteous and holy and yet embrace
somebody like me and somebody like you and not be tarnished. You see, God's got to be consistent
with His holy character. He's got to save in such a way
that His justice is honored and magnified. Every attribute of
God's got to be magnified. Isn't that right? Every attribute
of God. And there's only one way God
could save sinners and that would come to pass that all of His
attributes be magnified and glorified. That's through the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Substitution. Satisfaction. And so our Lord Jesus put away
all the sins of his people by his death. For us, he brought in everlasting
righteousness. He died, was buried, rose again,
went back to heaven 40 days after his resurrection. But I've got to be made aware
of what He did, of who He is and what He did. Because I've
got to believe on Him. You see, the same God who ordained
the death of the Lord Jesus also ordained the way that the benefits
of this salvation arrived to me. That's by faith. That's by faith. We're justified
by faith. We receive justification by the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We receive it by faith. We reach out. We're needy sinners.
We reach out to the Savior empty-handed. Nothing in my hands I bring,
top lady said. Isn't that song rock of ages?
Nothing in my hands I bring, he said, simply to thy cross
I cling. I've got to find out about this
gospel. It isn't that my faith puts sin
away. It isn't that my repentance brings
about forgiveness. But God has ordained. This is
the way. This is the way we must come
to faith in the Lord Jesus. This way salvation becomes a
reality to us. We believe Him. We believe Him. So He saves. Our souls are saved. And I tell anybody here this
evening, anybody who's watching, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. God will save you. I don't care
what you've done, who you are, where you are, how little you
know, how much you know. You believe on the Son of God
as He's revealed in this book. God said, I'll save you now.
That's fact. And our souls are saved. And
when we die, our souls go back to God. What
a pleasant, wonderful, beautiful thought. Go home to God. Home to be with the Lord. That's
what happened to our souls. That's what happened to Elizabeth,
to your mom. But you know, this salvation
also It also has to do not only with our souls, but it also has
to do with our bodies, because Christ Jesus redeemed our bodies.
And when we die, our souls go back to be with the Lord Jesus.
According to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we have a heavenly body, a
special body. We're not those who've departed.
They're not souls without bodies. They've got some sort of heavenly
body. And in that heavenly body, they
await the resurrection when their earthly body will be raised and
changed. You see, this salvation includes
the salvation of this body, the redemption of this body. The
design of God, therefore, is the restoration, not only of
the soul, but of the body. Someday, He'll deliver us from
mortality. He'll deliver us from corruption.
Our bodies will be miraculously, mysteriously, and wonderfully
remade. And you'll still be you, and
I'll still be me. But our bodies, they won't age
anymore. Won't have any more sin. Sin's
got such an awful effect upon us now. You know it does. But it won't always be that way. And then God is Here's something
else. Fourthly, God has purposed that
He'll receive all the glory and salvation. Read Ephesians 1 again. The Father's going to receive
the glory. He does receive the glory for the election of some
sinners unto salvation. The Son of God receives the glory
for the redemption of those people by His blood. which always results
in the forgiveness of sins, Ephesians 1 and 7. And then the Holy Spirit
by whom we're sealed to the day of redemption, he receives the
glory. Each time Paul writes to the
praise of the glory of his grace, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, to the praise of his glory. That's what he writes
here in Ephesians chapter one. Everything's going to magnify
the name of God in this salvation of sinners now. This great salvation
we're talking about. Everything's going to redound
to the glory of God. And then God has also purposed
this, that His only begotten Son be exalted before all men. Having the absolute preeminence
over the saved and the lost. Before all angels, good and bad.
Go back and read again in Revelation chapter 5. First of all, you
hear the redeemed of the Lord singing the song of redemption
of Christ Jesus. Then you have all of the angels.
They can't sing about redemption, but they do join their voices
in honoring Christ the Savior. But then, in fact, I tell you,
hold your place in Hebrews. Go back to Revelation 5. Let
me just show you this. Let me just point this out to
you. Revelation chapter 5. And I'll give you again in verses
8 and 9, here's the elect of God. Here's the redeemed. Here
are those who reap the benefits of the Lamb who was slain. Here
they are singing when Christ takes the book in verse 8. It says in verse 9, they sung
a new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book. and opened
the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to
God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation and hast made us unto our God kings and priests and
we shall reign on the earth. Then John said, I beheld and
I heard the voice of many angels. So now it's like here's the great
choir of all of God's people. They're singing praise to Christ
Jesus. And then after we finished, the
angels, they got their song back on the scene. And I beheld, verse
11, I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne,
round about the beasts and the elders. The number of them, the
number of the angels was 10,000 times 10,000, and thousands of
thousands sang with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. slaughtered to receive power
and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.
All right, we've heard from the elect of God, the redeemed of
God. We've heard from all the angels,
but now watch this in verse 13. And every creature, every creature
which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, in hell, Such as are in the sea, all that
are in them, I heard them saying, blessing and honor and glory
and power be unto him that setteth upon the throne and unto the
Lamb forever and ever. God has ordained. Every knee
is going to bow to Christ Jesus. Every voice is going to sing
His praise. Every tongue is going to acknowledge
that He's the Lord. Even those that are dead in their
sins, even those who are going to have to spend eternity in
hell, they're going to bend the knee to Christ Jesus. They're
going to fall before Him, not in loving adoration like the
saints of God. They're going to be forced to
bow though. They're going to be forced to honor Him. The reason
is because God's ordained it. God has ordained it. And everything
today is moving toward the ultimate goal of the exaltation of Christ
Jesus. In Hebrews, the first chapter,
the writer has been exalted in the Savior. He exalts him as
that one by whom God speaks today. Look at Hebrews chapter 1. Go
back to that. Hebrews chapter 1. God, verse
1, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by His Son. Here's what the writer tells
us. Our God speaks. He's not like the gods of the
heathen. The gods of the heathen can't speak. That's what David
said in the psalm. They have mouths, but they speak
not. They're dumb. Our God speaks. Our God speaks. He doesn't have to speak to you.
He doesn't have to speak to me. But He speaks. He speaks. When He speaks, the dead live.
When He speaks, the blind see. When He speaks, the lame walk.
When He speaks, light comes into existence. Let there be light,
and there was light. God speaks. God speaks. He says in these last days, He's
spoken to us by His Son. You see, in the Old Testament,
we have a progressive revelation of the Lord Jesus. By bits and pieces, kind of here
a little, there a little, The Lord is building, He's building
this monumental truth about salvation by substitute. But it's like
just you don't see the full glory of the gospel. It's like this,
could I use this illustration like you're riding out someday
in your car and it's kind of overcast and then Then you see
these beams of light come down. You know, you've seen that. You
don't see the full force of the sunshine, but you see the beams
come down, shining through the clouds. That's like the Old Testament. That's the Old Testament. And
then there are more beams of light come through in the Old
Testament. Until you get to the New Testament, and then you see
the full glory of Christ Jesus. You see, we need the Old Testament.
It speaks to us in picture and type, figure of our Lord Jesus
and this great salvation. But they didn't see things as
clearly as we do because they didn't have the New Testament.
They couldn't go to the book of Hebrews. They didn't have
that. They couldn't go to the Gospel of John. They couldn't
go to the book of Romans. They had the Old Testament. And
so they saw less than we less than we see in the Word
of God, but they saw exactly what God intended for them to
see. And they saw Christ Jesus in picture. We see Him in reality
in the New Testament. And we see that this great salvation
has already been fulfilled by Him. It's been accomplished by
Him. Because His name is Jesus. He shall save His people from
their sins. And so in Hebrews chapter 1,
the writer of the book of Hebrews, He magnifies the Son of God. He speaks to us about the Son
of God. And then He gets to the second
chapter and He says, having said all of these wonderful, glorious
things about the Son of God, about who He is and what He did
and where He is now, how that He is greater than the angels,
how God told the angels, worship my Son. Therefore, we ought to
give them more earnest consideration or heed. to the things that we
ever heard. Heard about what? Christ Jesus. The more earnest, more earnest
heed. I said this morning, I wish we
were more sober minded about these things, more serious about
these things. He says, lest at any time we
should let them slip. Interesting word, that word slip. It's like something floating
down a river. You're sitting by the river.
Maybe you're fishing or whatever. Here comes a current going this
way. And you see something floating.
Well, look at that. And you just watch it. And it
just slips away. He says, you better give earnest
heed to the things you've heard about the Lord Jesus Christ,
because they're floating right in front of you, lest they just
float right by you. And then they're gone. They're
gone. I tell you, I think about a man
by the name of Bartimaeus, blind Bartimaeus, sitting by the wayside. Our Lord coming into Jericho.
He heard Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Here He comes, the
Savior is coming by. Boy, I tell you, blind Bartimaeus,
he had heard from somebody that this is the only one who could
help him. This is the one who could meet his need. He said,
Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And they said, don't
bother. The Master? He said, but he's
passing by. I don't want him to pass by.
I don't want this to float right by me. Here's the only one who
can save me. Here's the only one who can forgive
me. Here's the only one who can make me righteous. Here's the
only one who before God I can be accepted in. The Lord Jesus,
I'm not going to shut up. I'll cry out the louder. Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. You know what the scripture
says? The Lord Jesus stopped. He stopped. He said, bring him
to me. What do you want? He said, I
want to see. And the Lord Jesus said, thy
faith hath saved thee. Gave him his sight. These things
are passing right in front of you right now. Gospel of redeeming
grace, everlasting life, forgiveness of sins, The greatness of God's
salvation has been passing right in front of you for many of you
for lots of years. Is it just going to slip by you? How shall we escape? He says
in verse 3, if we neglect so great salvation, if we just let
it slip by. How shall we escape? The Lord sent a couple of angels
to Sodom. Said, Lot, escape for your life.
Escape for your life. And the scripture says he lingered. But you know what? The Lord wouldn't
let him stay there. If I could put it this way, the
Lord wouldn't take no for an answer. I'm not going to take
no for an answer. Get out of Sodom! Well, I got deep roots here. You're going out of Sodom. By
God's effectual grace, you're going out of Sodom. And I'm telling
you this. Escape. There is an escape. There is an escape from destruction. How shall we escape if we neglect
salvation? If God leaves this to ourselves,
we will absolutely neglect this great salvation. And it will
just float right by us. It will. It'll just go right
over our heads. I'll tell you what the Lord's
got to do. He's got to get our attention. He's got to give us
life. And I tell you, the Lord, them
angels, Talat, they grabbed him by the hands and said, you're
coming with us. And I tell you, it's a blessed
day when the Spirit of God says to you, in effect, hey, you're
coming with us. You're coming with us. You're
not going to neglect this salvation any longer. If God leaves you
to you, to your thoughts, to your will, to your ways, and
no hope for you. No hope for me either. How shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation? It's a great salvation,
but by nature we neglect it. That's how hard-hearted and hard-headed
we are. But there are some people from
whom God will not accept no. God's just not going to accept
your unbelief. Ain't that wonderful? He won't
accept your unbelief. He's going to give you faith.
He's going to make you alive. And He's going to make you want
this great Savior who is the very centerpiece in
this great salvation.