Let's open our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. In Deuteronomy, the Lord tells us that the law that was given to Moses came by God on Mount Sinai, but it was ministered to him through angels. So that's the reference that's being made in verse two of Hebrews chapter two. It's the 10 commandments that Moses received at Mount Sinai.

And 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, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? Tied to this message, how should we escape? We need to escape. We need a way of escape. How should we escape? If we neglect, so great salvation. This word neglect is interesting.

It's the word care. with the Greek alpha in front of it. You know that when a word is done like that, that it reverses the meaning of the word. So the word neglect means to be indifferent. It means to be apathetic. It means to don't care. It can also be translated careless. Careless. The unregenerate man doesn't care. He's indifferent. He's apathetic.

He has a take-it-or-leave-it attitude concerning the gospel. Well, he has a leave-it attitude concerning the gospel. But he's not interested. likens that man in the parable of the soils, where the seeds of the gospel are being scattered, and some of them fall on the roadside, and the birds of the air catch them away, and they never grow, they never germinate. Some fall on rocky soil, and they spring up, they show some evidence of life, but because there's no depth to the root, when the heat of the sun comes up, the plant dies and never becomes fruitful. a picture of those who might show some initial interest in the gospel or in the scriptures, but when it comes right down to it, there's no depth of understanding, there's no truth in their hearts, and so all is lost. Another soil that's represented in that is the thorny soil, and the seed that falls on the thorny soil Again, it takes root, it starts to come alive, but it is choked out by the cares of this world. And the deceitfulness of riches choke out the word of God so that it produces no fruit. And then there's the good soil.

And that simply is not speaking of your goodness or my goodness, it is speaking of the new heart. The same new heart that God speaks of in Jeremiah chapter 36 when he says, I will take out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. A heart that has been prepared to receive the word of God. It's the new birth. It's not, as I said, it's not our quality of goodness. It is the heart of faith that believes what God has said.

And the seed that falls on that soil, some 30, some 60, some 100 fold, there's no, we don't compare the production of one seed to another. We just know that those seeds are going to be fruitful. They're going to be fruitful with the fruit of the spirit. the fruit of faith, the fruit of joy, the fruit of all those things that the Lord tells us happens when that seed of the gospel takes root in a heart that He has given, a heart that He has given.

I wanted to tell that parable because of the thorny soil the seed was choked out because of the cares of this world. And how many times I've listened to a message, read a scripture, been intrigued or blessed by it even, and then soon forget it. And I fear, Lord, is that the the birds of the air plucking away the seed of the gospel from my heart? How many times in the shallowness of my own commitment and understanding the seed dries up? How many times the cares of this world, some cares, good cares. We all have lots of cares. We have lots of concerns in life. And how many times the cares of this world have choked out the fruitfulness of the seed the gospel.

I believe that parable can be understood in light of every believer's experience so that we are brought as the people of God to say, Lord give me a new heart. Lord give me a heart of faith. Lord enable me to to believe and to rejoice in the gospel of your free grace, to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I've known by my own experience how many times the word of God has ended up being fruitless to me.

Now, I believe in the context of what the Lord is saying there in that parable, that those first three soils represent the one who could care less, the one who is indifferent, the one who is apathetic, the unbeliever. And the fourth soil represents the elect child of God who has been given a new heart. And that's our hope. but also in our experience, we're brought to cry, Lord, I've been careless too many times.

I've been careless. Lord, help me. Lord, enable me to, let's go back to our text, to not neglect the great salvation that you have accomplished. Lord, I've been negligent. So often I've been negligent. I've gotten caught up in the cares of this world.

What do we do? Well, we do what David did in Psalm 51. Lord, create in me a new heart, a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. Lord, I need that heart that you spoke of in Jeremiah chapter 36. Because left to myself, my heart is corrupt. The heart is deceitful, desperately wicked. Who can know it? That's the human heart. That's the heart of flesh. Lord, I need that new birth. I need that new heart.

If I'm going to not neglect this great salvation, the Lord, he's admonishing us, brethren. And he's rebuking the unbeliever who is truly indifferent to the gospel. How shall we neglect? How shall we escape? It's a rhetorical question. There is no escape. If you are indifferent to the gospel, if you don't care about the gospel, there's no way to escape the judgment of God.

But the believer reads this and says, Lord, I've been negligent. I've been careless. Lord, I need you to create in me a clean heart. I need a new heart. The heart. Men will surrender anything in their life but their heart. That's the central command center, is it not? The heart.

Men change and often do their doctrine. They can change and they often do change their doctrine. Come to a different understanding of what the Bible might mean about something. Maybe they change from an Arminian to a Calvinist. Maybe change from a Catholic to a Presbyterian, I don't know. Men change their view of God all the time.

And if a person gets sick and tired of being sick and tired, they will come to the point to where they'll change their behavior. We're capable of, in the power of our flesh, we're capable of changing our behavior. People do it all the time. Change the things they do. They stop doing things that were self-destructive. They start doing things that are more productive. People do it all the time.

The one thing that a man will not change is his heart. The one thing that a man cannot change is his heart. That's something that only God can do. And only God can put it in the heart to want the heart changed. Let me show you that. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 36. This is that chapter that speaks of God taking out the heart of stone and put it in a heart of flesh and causing his children to loathe themselves. But I want you to take notice of one particular verse in this chapter. Look at verse 37.

Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of the house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase them with men like a flock. I will yet for this be inquired to do it for them. I'm going to put in their heart a desire for a new heart. I'm going to cause them to ask me And when our Lord said that we have not because we ask not, and he went on to tell us that we are to knock, the door will be open, ask, and be given, seek, and you will find. Those verbs are in the continual sense. They're not past tense. They're not even present tense. They're in the sense that means keep knocking and the door will keep being open to you.

Keep asking and you will keep receiving. Keep seeking and you will keep finding. How do I know that the Lord has done a work of grace in my heart? I can't not. Continue seeking. I can't not. I can't quit. I can't not not believe. He won't let me. I will for this. For what? For the new heart. I will for this be inquired of them that I will do it to the house of Israel. I'm going to put it in their heart to ask me for a new heart. I'm gonna put it in their heart to desire a new heart. That's supernatural. That's not anything that men will do on their own. They'll change everything else, but they won't change their heart.

Now, go back with me to our text. How shall we escape if we don't care about the gospel? And how shall we escape if we become careless concerning the gospel? It is our carelessness, it is our negligence, it is our sin that causes us to come back again, and again, and again, and ask the Lord, create in me a new heart.

When Rebecca was pregnant with twins, Jacob and Esau, clearly a picture of the two natures, Esau being a man of flesh, he was the firstborn, and Jacob Though he was by nature a supplanter, just as we all are, his name was changed to Israel. He was a prince of God. And those are our two natures. And Rebecca wanted to know why she was having so much trouble with these two boys in her womb that were constantly fighting. And the Lord said to her, because there are two nations in you, there are two in every manner of people within you.

But here's the hope. Here's the hope. The older, that's Esau, will serve the younger. Now that's my experience. And my brothers and sisters, I know that's your experience. And I believe that's what the Lord is telling us here. When we become negligent, it's because that old man has gotten caught up in the things of this world. He's been entangled with the thorns of this world. And we become careless and negligent concerning the gospel. And it's the fear of that old man being in control that causes us to flee once again. We sang that in the hymn, Tom, fleeing to Christ.

And so the whole purpose of this message, for those who have no concern for their souls, for those who are indifferent and apathetic, concerned in the gospel, I would say to you, be afraid because there's no way of escape being in that place where you are. for those for whom God has given a new heart and has caused them to come before his throne of grace and ask him to save them. Child of God, what do we do? What do we do when we become negligent? What do we do when we become careless? Well, we are reminded of how much he cares for us.

I'm not calling on you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. I'm not calling on you to rededicate your life. I'm not calling on you to be more committed and to be less negligent and less careful. I'm asking you, I'm reminding all of us that we cast our care upon him because it is he that careth for us.

This is the great salvation. Now, I wanna put in contrast how much the Lord cares for his people. how much he loves them, to what he says about his attitude concerning the rest of the world. This puts it in a stark contrast. Turn with me, if you will, to Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. Look with me at verse 15 in Isaiah chapter 40.

Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket and are counted as a small dust of the balance. Behold, he, God, taketh up the isles, the continents, the land masses of the world. He takes them up as a very little thing. Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beast thereof sufficient for a burnt offerings. All nations before him are as nothing. And they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity. Turn over just one page to the beginning of Isaiah chapter 40.

The Lord speaks to the prophet and says to him, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished and that her iniquity is pardoned. And she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. God made him who knew no sin, sin for us. Imputed all the shame and all the guilt and all the penalty of sin to our sin bearer, our substitute, our savior, our surety. As he hung on Calvary's cross, he suffered the full wrath of God's judgment.

Why did he do that? For God so loved. the world that he gave his only begotten son. That world doesn't mean every individual. You saw in Isaiah chapter 40 what God says about the nations of the world. He was talking to Nicodemus in John chapter three and speaking to Nicodemus about those who were outside of Israel, the Gentile world. he gave his only begotten Son. And greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

Oh, to be a friend of God, to be the apple of his eye. We read the Song of Solomons and we read the description that the Lord Jesus gives of his bride. And she's so beautiful in his sight that he says this, he says, one look, from your eye, one glance from his wife to him, he says this, ravishes my heart.

It ravishes my heart. And how much do I care for you? Here's how much I care for you. I care for you so much that I gave everything for you. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church. Laid down his life for her. No man ever hated his own body, but he loves it and he cherishes it. Speaking of this great mystery concerning Christ and his church, the Lord Jesus loves his wife. He loves his bride and he does everything in eternity and in time to care for her.

This is the great salvation that the writer of Hebrews is talking about. What greater truth that could there be? Is it not the love of Christ that constraineth us? So great a salvation, a sovereign, a sovereign, immutable, omnipotent. These words can only apply to God Almighty. the creator and sustainer of all things, the one who is himself self-contained and self-sustained and self-existent, the one who is in need of nothing, that he would lay down his life for his friends, what is it that makes me concerned about this great salvation? What is it that makes me not be negligent about it? What is it that makes me not be careless about the great salvation is to know how he didn't neglect it, how he cared for it and what he did. We love him because he first loved us.

This is always the remedy to sin, whether it be the first time coming to the throne of grace to be saved, to be converted, or whether it be the innumerable time in the life of a believer That's why we don't, Tricia and I were talking the other day about a church she used to go to when she was a child, and the preacher told the congregation, he said, well, you know, on Sunday mornings I preach to the unbelievers, and on Sunday nights I preach to the believers.

Unbelievers and believers need to hear the same exact message. Christ and him crucified, because our problem, whether we're unbelievers or believers, is sin. And the only remedy to our sin problem is the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, whether someone is neglecting the gospel because they absolutely don't care about it, or whether someone has become negligent concerning the carelessness of their faith, the same solution, the same message, the same remedy, the same hope, We flee to Christ, we come to Christ, and we're reminded in coming to him how much he cares for us.

How much he cares for us. This is what breaks the heart. This is what causes us to say, oh Lord, give me, give me that heart. Make me to be a man after God's own heart. And that word that's describing David, a man after God's own heart, perfectly describes the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the man after God's own heart, the son of David. But every believer is fashioned in the likeness of the heart of Christ. This is the heart that only God can give.

This is the heart that a man will never desire apart from the spirit of God making him. Lord, my heart's corrupt. My heart's full of sin. I can't command control of my life. I need you. I can't save myself. Lord, I've got enough experience in my sin to know that I need a savior. I need a Savior.

Turn with me to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Look at verse 6. Philippians chapter 2, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God. The Lord Jesus Christ was the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The condescension that the Lord Jesus made in leaving the glories of heaven and being made in the likeness of sinful flesh and suffering the contradiction of sinners coming into this world, this sinful world. He was God. Fully, fully God. And yet being in the likeness of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He never denied his own deity. He said clearly, I and the Father are one. How much does he, how am I gonna care for this great salvation? How am I gonna overcome my indifference? How am I gonna overcome my carelessness? How am I gonna overcome what we read in Hebrews, my negligence? How am I gonna overcome that? Verse seven.

He made himself of no reputation. He took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He went to Calvary's tree. He laid his life down. He did it for his people. Why? Because, oh, how much he cares for her.

Wherefore, God? also hath highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and things in heaven, things in earth and things under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Verse five. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Let this mind be in you. Oh, Lord.

It's not the threat of the law that saves a sinner. It's the goodness of God that leadeth to repentance. It's the love of Christ that constraineth us. Yes, we must escape the wrath that is to come. Turn with me to Psalm 71. And the only hope of that escape is for the Lord to give us a heart that cares for the gospel and cares for Christ. Look what David said in Psalm 71. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be put to confusion.

Deliver me in thy righteousness and cause me to escape. Incline thine ear unto me and save me. Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort. that thou hast given commandment to save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man, for thou art my hope, O Lord God. Thou art my trust from my youth. By thee have I been holding up from the womb.

Art he that took me out of my mother's womb, my praise shall be continually of thee. The Lord Jesus himself is our way of escape. And he's admonishing us And believers, believers take these admonishments to heart. They've been given a heart to believe God's word. Lord, I've been, I've been negligent so much. I've been careless, creating me a new heart.

Turning me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, I want to close with one more verse of scripture. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We've quoted this verse often over the years, but I want you to look at it with me. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and we'll be at verse 13.

Not only do we need to escape the wrath that is to come. We need to flee to the city of refuge. Remember when God gave a law in the Old Testament, there were six cities, three on the eastern side of the Jordan River and three on the western side of the Jordan River. Those cities of refuge represent Christ.

And if a man accidentally killed someone, The law said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. So the next of kin was obligated by the law to pursue that one who had killed his relative and take his life. That's the law. The law will not settle for anything less than perfect balance.

So a man could flee to that city of refuge and find an escape from the avenger of blood, the one that was after him. What a glorious picture. The law of God demands perfect obedience, and it will judge us guilty of every infraction. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's the one that fulfilled all the requirements of the law. We flee to him. The law has nothing to say. Long as we're in the city of refuge, the voice of the law, the condemnation of the law has been silenced by Christ.

We also need to escape all the temptations that come with our unbelief. Unbelief is our problem. And I believe that's what 1 Corinthians 10, 13 is speaking of. Let's read this together. There hath no temptation. Trial, trouble, tribulation, temptation of sin. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to all men. This is a problem that every man has. It's not unique to you. Whatever your current circumstances are, God is saying to you and me, don't think that you're unique. All men suffer these things. Here's the hope. God is faithful. God is faithful. And he will not allow you or suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able. A lot of people will stop right there.

How many times I've heard someone say, God won't put more on you than you can bear. He said right there, I'm not putting more on you than you're able. If you can bear it, you don't need him. And if he puts your sin on you, you've got a weight you'll never bear. And if he shows you the condemnation of the law, you've got an avenger of blood that you can never escape. No, he puts more on us than we can bear.

Thank God he does. But will, with the temptation, provide the way of escape? That we may be able to bear. In all our carelessnesses of this great salvation, we look to how much the Lord Jesus cares for us. The evidence of his love and the sacrifice that he made in order to demonstrate that love for his bride. And we're reminded of how much he cares for us. How could we be careless concerning something that concerns him so, so much?

And so again and again and again, we flee to Christ that we may be able to bear all our trials and all our temptations. The Lord provides. the way of escape, the way of escape. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for the Lord Jesus being the way. Lord, we are in desperate need for a new heart. Lord, how, how you have put it in our hearts to inquire of thee to give us that heart that we might, that we might find in the Lord Jesus Christ the way of escape. For it's in his name we pray. Amen. 3, 352, 352.