Well, we're continuing our study
in the epistle to the Hebrews this morning, and I want to come
to the first four verses of chapter two. And these four verses are
a stop and pause and think before we get into the detailed arguments.
We've had chapter one, which is this sublime description,
this sublime presentation of the truth of God and of Christ,
who is God, and of Christ so much, how Christ is the fulfilment
of all of the Old Testament scriptures, which were the treasure of the
Hebrews to whom this epistle is written, but showing that
Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Messiah, is
almighty God. God says to the Son, God, who
is God, says to the Son, who is God, thy throne, O God, is
for ever and ever. God, even thy God, hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness. Thou, O Lord, speaking to the
Son, this is God, this is the salvation of God presented, for
God is the salvation of his people. And this is God's salvation presented
to us. And so these four verses, before
we get into the arguments that then become so rich. So rich. Who has a mind wide enough to
take them all in? There have been many commentaries,
there have been many sermons preached, but who has a mind
wide enough? We enter an area that is so rich
with truth that there are four verses that are a little bit
like, you know the little word in the Psalms that you get every
now and then? Selah. Whenever you see that word, it
means stop. Pause. Think about what you've
just read. Let it sink in, meditate on it.
Before you go on, think about it. So before we go on to the
rich arguments, let's stop and pause and meditate on the implications
of that chapter one, because you see, it starts with therefore,
therefore. Why for? Because of chapter one.
Therefore, we ought to give them more earnest heed. Do you know
what earnest heed is? It's language that we don't use
much these days, but it means take real notice Sit up and listen. Don't let this go in one ear
and out the other. Take earnest heed to the things
which we have heard in chapter one, lest at any time we should
let them slip. For 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. The salvation of God in chapter
one, which is in God, and in salvation, the gospel is Christ. It's not about Christ, it is
Christ. It is Christ the Lord. How shall
we escape? How shall we escape just judgment? How shall we escape our dessert
of hell in the flesh if we neglect so great salvation? We like to
watch uh... a program about the lifeboat
institution and this year actually is the two hundredth anniversary
of the national lifeboat institution in this country uh... in fact
in our choir we're singing a charity concert on thursday evening which
is aimed at raising money for the lifeboat institution and
there's a program on tv called saving lives at sea which is
documentaries about events where they've gone out and saved people
at sea imagine that your boat is capsized out at sea. There's
a lot of sailing just down the road. Imagine your boat is capsized
and you're in a rough sea. And imagine in that situation
you being more interested in the money you're going to make
out of such and such a deal or the possessions that you've got
at home. Imagine you're more interested in that than in being
rescued from the peril that you're in. You're going to drown. If
the lifeboat doesn't come, you're going to drown. Imagine being
more interested in other things than of being saved from that
peril. Because you see, all of us, by
nature in the flesh, are in eternal peril. You know the verse I quote
so often, again in Hebrews 9, 27, it is appointed to man, every
last single one of us, it is appointed to man to die, and
then? the judgment. We die once and
then the judgment. There's no purgatory. There's
no second chance. We die once and then there's a judgment.
We're all by nature in eternal peril. What should our thoughts
be on? Think of that. Think of yourself
in peril in the sea, about to drown if the lifeboat doesn't
come. What will give you peace? What will give you peace? In
that situation, the lifeboat coming along. You hear on that
TV program, the people that are rescued, and they say, oh, it
was dreadful for me. But oh, then I saw the orange
of the lifeboat, and I thought, there's a hope, there's a hope,
there's peace, I'm going to be rescued. That's the sort of thing
we're talking about. Good hope, comfort. You see,
the things of Earth occupy our attention. But God's salvation
from sin, God's qualification of a multitude he loved in eternity
for heaven They ought to occupy us far more. Those are the things
that should occupy us. We should give the more earnest
heed to those things. Hebrews 1 has declared the saviour
of sinners. God is the saviour of sinners.
It is God our saviour. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is of God, not of him that wills nor of him that runs, but of
God who shows mercy. It's about God. As we saw in
chapter one, it is about God who was made man, for what purpose? It says it in verse three, to
purge his people's sins, the sins that would separate from
God, that do separate from God. He came to purge those sins,
to pay for them, to remove them, so that we don't have to answer
for them, so that when it comes to the day of judgment, as it
says, of Israel and Judah, meaning the people that God has loved,
those who believe Him, when the sins of those people are looked
for, they shall not be found, because they are not there, because
He has taken them away. We live in an age, more so I
think than in any, you know, what's different about the day
in which we live to previous generations? Well, one thing
I would say, and there are several, but one thing is information
overload. Information overload and information
of the most varied quality and much of it, most of it, a very
dubious, poor quality. We have information overload.
This is what attracts your attention, what distracts you. You can't
concentrate for more than a few seconds on this because that's
distracting you and that's distracting you. We have information overload.
overload, does this that I'm talking about, this salvation
of God, does this have any relevance to me? All of us, you young folk,
does it have any relevance to me? Does it speak to me? No,
I'm interested in this, that, and the other, I'm not bothered
about that sort of thing. It has no... You can do it if you
want to, but listen, it has interest to all of us, if you're serious. We're spiritually about to be
drowned at sea. Is the lifeboat of any interest? That's the level that we're at. So, the first point is that he
calls us to recall chapter one. He says, therefore, right at
the start of chapter two, therefore, this is the Selah, think about
it, therefore, since, because of chapter one, because of what
we've read in chapter one, what have we read in chapter one?
That God has spoken by prophets, and now, in these last days,
by his son. Christ, appointed heir of all
things. Surely all things are God's.
Yes, all things are Christ's. I've said just the same thing.
He said, I and my Father are one. He who is our Savior is
creator and upholder of all things. He's told us that. Wow. The man,
Jesus of Nazareth, that walked this earth with no comeliness
that we should desire him. is creator and upholder of all
things. He upholds all things by the
word of his power. Christ is God, and Christ is
man, and he is the brightness of the Father's glory. We cannot
see God with our natural eyes. We cannot sense God. But Christ
is the express image of His person who makes Him known. He is the
manifestation, the revealing of the hidden God. He is the
Word of God that we can hear and sense, the Word of the unknowable
God, the hidden God. And since He alone has purged
His people's sins, He is now exalted. This one is reigning. He's not gentle Jesus meek and
mild walking this earth and men and women despising him. He's
exalted. He's reigning. He's supreme. He's no longer as he was when
he walked this earth, despised and rejected of men. No, he's
exalted, that in all things, God says, in all things, he should
have the preeminence. His name is the word of God,
and God has magnified his word above all his name. He is above
everything, the preeminence. He is much better than the angels. Oh, If an angel appeared in this
room now, we'd all be struck with fear. But he's much better
than the angels. He is declared in the Old Testament. You Hebrews that this is written
to, he is declared to be the God, the almighty God of the
Old Testament scriptures. Who is? This man, Jesus of Nazareth,
in whom alone is abundant. What did he say? I am come that
they might have life. Who? His people. Who are his
people? Those who believe him. I am come that those people might
have life and have it more abundantly. Do you not want abundant life?
You know, whatever physical situation you're in, if you know Christ
you have and you experience abundant, eternal life. It's in him. And he says, therefore, because
of these things, therefore, we ought, there's no distinction
here, this is the apostle writing to believing hearers, we ought,
he doesn't say you ought, as some superior priest speaking
down to them. No, this is the apostle, this
is the preacher, this is the people, all in the same boat
of fallen humanity, with the same struggles, with the same
temptations, experiencing the same dangers. It is imperative
that we all take this as vital, as uniquely important. If you've
never given this thought, if you're hearing this for the first
time, or if you've heard it once or twice and it's passed over
your head, if you have an acquaintance with it but you've never given
it serious thought, wake up now and give earnest heed. We ought
to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard.
lest at any time we should let them slip. Listen to the warning,
is my second point. Listen to the warning. If you've
professed belief in Christ, beware of letting these things slip,
lest at any time we should let them slip. But if you have a
marginal translation, you know, a centre marginal, wherever it
is, in my Bible it says that the Greek, therefore, let them
slip, is run out as leaking vessels. Run out as leaking vessels. Do
you know sometimes there seems to be so little evidence of a
leak that you can't see it leaking out. Just as an illustration,
there's a place near to us which has a problem with its heating,
and it's been going on for months now, and it's ever such an imperceptible
leak. If you were to look, you can't
see any leak whatsoever. But leaking, ever so gently,
it really is. And when the pressure in the
system drops below a certain level, the boiler, the heater,
the furnace will not fire up. It says there's a fault, there's
not enough pressure in the system. It kind of steadily leaks away,
and then all of a sudden, it's a fatal loss. Nothing happens,
it doesn't work. An imperceptible slow leak, but
a bad result. This is what the apostle's talking
about here. You might say you profess to
believe the truth of gospel grace, but beware of letting it gradually
leak away. as it might leak out of a vessel
that's got ever such a slight crack in it, or a slight puncture
in it. A slow puncture, as you might
say. There's a danger of apostasy. There's a danger of eternal ruin. Of having seemed to run well,
but not continuing. Paul writes to Timothy, 1 Timothy
1.19, talks about holding the faith and a good conscience,
which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck. There
were some that went away from Paul. He gives many examples. In the Old Testament, there was
Korah, there was Saul the king. the first king of Israel, who
seemed to know God, but drifted away from the truth of God and
was lost. There's Demas, Demas who Paul
tells us was one of his companions. But he tells Timothy that Demas
has left him. He's in prison and he's being
helped by Demas. But he said, Demas has deserted
me. Why? Do you know what it says
about Demas? Having loved this present world. Having loved this
present world, the things of eternity, the things of salvation,
the things of the gospel, have become unimportant to him. Gradually,
gradually, gradually, he'd let them slip. He'd let them run
out as out of a leaking vessel until he was lost. Don't be under
any delusion. The scripture makes it clear.
Those who truly believe the gospel of grace cannot be lost and will
not be lost. But there are many who profess,
who make a show, who appear, but they're not true and they
will go away. So if you continue, keep in mind
that you've been not moved away from what you've heard. Look,
let me give you one or two more examples. In chapter 3 of Hebrews
and verse 14, it's the same idea. We are made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the
end. Let me give you another, chapter
4, verse 1. Let us therefore fear, lest a
promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should
seem to come short of it. Now, of course, he's saying this
as a warning, like that Proverbs passage that we started with,
to stick with it, to keep going and not let go. But the truth
is that it is God that doesn't let go of his people. It is in
my Father's hands. Nobody can pluck them from my
Father's hands. We're safe in the hands of the
Father. Chapter 12 and verse 25 says
this. See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh, meaning that speaketh from heaven. For if they escaped
not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not
we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.
Stick with Christ, stick with him and the gospel of his grace.
The verses that we read in Proverbs 6, my son, keep thy father's
commandment and forsake not the law of thy mother. bind them
continually upon thine heart, tie them about thine neck, when
thou goest it shall lead thee, when thou sleepest it shall keep
thee, when thou awakest it shall talk with thee. Don Faulkner
said of this passage, bind the gospel to our hearts and our
hearts to the gospel. I think you get what I'm saying.
It involves It involves, not that our salvation is dependent
on our effort, but we're encouraged, we're exalted here to give the
more earnest heed to the things we've heard. To bind the gospel
to our hearts, and our hearts to the gospel. Because next,
God's justice never changes. Verse two, if the word spoken
by angels was steadfast, and every transgression of disobedience
received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape?
God's justice never changes. The transgression of the law
ministered by mere angels was always met with just penalty. They ministered the law of God
in the Old Testament, and transgression of it was always met with just
penalty. Verse three, so how much more
shall we suffer from neglect of the gospel law of God's Son? How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation, the gospel law of so great salvation? Because there is no other way
of salvation. Acts chapter four, verse 12,
Peter preaching, neither is there salvation in any other. What's
he talking about, the Lord Jesus Christ? God the Messiah, the
saviour of his people, neither is there salvation in any other. There isn't another way. I was reading an article earlier
about the demise of our national state church, the Church of England,
and how it is the utter antithesis of anything that you might call
Christian. There's a total denial of the truth of God. Any way
to God is acceptable. Anybody else's religion is acceptable.
No, it isn't. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. But that church, this complete
church so-called, has completely thrown that overboard. along
with the ideas of this modern world. Neither is there salvation
in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. How should a man be just
with God, asked Job, only in Jesus the Christ, only in the
Lord Jesus Christ? How will you escape divine wrath
for sin? How shall a man be just with
God? The only way you will escape divine wrath for sin is by being
found to be just before God, being justified before God. And
that's only in the Lord Jesus Christ, especially if you treat
with contempt the gospel of so great salvation in Christ. You know, we were reading in
Matthew's gospel earlier on this morning about the start of the
ministry of John the Baptist. the Pharisees come out to him
to Jordan with the crowds coming out from Jerusalem and Judea
to him to hear his message of repentance and be baptized as
a mark of sincerity that they wanted to be right with God.
And John the Baptist looks and sees the Sadducees and the Pharisees,
the religious leaders, And, you know, if it was modern day religion,
if it was our Church of England, they'd say, oh, welcome, what
can we do to make you feel at home here? What things must we
do to make it nice for you to come amongst us? No, you know
what John the Baptist said, he said, you brood of vipers. You
brood of vipers, who persuaded you to flee from the wrath to
come? Because the wrath of God is coming
on the sins of this world. How will you escape divine wrath
for sin? There's none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. There's no
other one who has dealt with your sin. There's no other one,
if you believe him, you believe him because he has dealt with
your sin. So then, We need to heed the gospel. We ought to
give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard,
lest at any time we should let them slip. When God spoke, when
God spoke by his Son in these last days, he spoke the gospel
of the kingdom. Jesus came preaching, repent,
the kingdom of God is at hand. That was his message. Verse three,
if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ came saying,
repent, the kingdom of God is at hand. This was his message,
the gospel of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God. And
it was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. Who were they?
The disciples, who became the apostles. They confirmed it to
us. They preached that gospel to
us. And to prove that what was being
said was true, verse 4, God bore witness that what they were saying
was true. How did he do that? With signs
and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according
to his own will. Things that would never normally
happen under the natural run of natural law, of the way that
the world and the universe in which we live works. A miracle
is when God divinely changes things. And God caused men who
never knew any other languages to speak in foreign languages
without having been taught. That truly is what the gift of
tongues was for those days. Miracles of healing that couldn't
possibly have happened without divine intervention. that the
one who upholds all things by the word of his power, the one
who controls the laws of nature, the laws of what makes disease
do what it does, he is the one who controls all of these things.
He said, how shall we escape judgment if we neglect that salvation. How shall we escape drowning
if we're in the sea, if we ignore, if we reject the lifeboat? You
say, oh, well, I'm not in the sea and I'm not drowning, so
the lifeboats have no relevance to me. Oh, you will discover.
You will discover that it is the most important thing. Only
God's salvation can save us. It's that and it's that alone. It isn't religious man's distortion
of it. and what a great salvation it
is. Look what it says there. If we neglect, so great salvation. I'm not going to be long this
morning, but I just want to put these seeds of thought in your
minds, and then for you to treat these four verses as that Selah
word of the Psalms. Meditate on it. Salvation is
our God. Christ is our God. Christ is
our salvation. There is no other. He is the
one who is above all things, and in Him and in Him alone is
that which we need more than anything else in this life. You
need it more than a good career. You need it more than money.
You need it more than health. You need it more than anything.
You need this salvation to be right with God for eternity.
What a great salvation it is. Here's some points about this
salvation. Christ is the author and finisher
of it. We're going to read that when
we get to chapter 12, but we often quote it. Hebrews chapter
12. He says, seeing that we're encompassed
about by a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Do you know what the
sin is that so easily besets us? And you think, oh, what's
that thing? I don't know, it's not those either. It's unbelief.
That's the sin which so easily besets us, unbelief. Laying it
aside and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
How? Looking. unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him. What
was the joy set before him? Him and his people in eternal
glory. That's the joy set before him.
For that he endured the cross, so that he might qualify people
that couldn't possibly be qualified any other way. for eternal life,
for eternal citizenship in the kingdom of God. He despised the
shame of that cross. He is set down at the right hand
of God. Christ is the author and the
finisher of it. The implication of that is that
there is nothing left to us to complete. Doesn't that comfort
your hearts? How are you going to be right
with God? How are you going to be sure of heaven? Christ is
the author and finisher of it. And who is Christ? He is God.
He is almighty God, is the author of salvation and the finisher
of it. This salvation, this salvation,
you know, people say, oh, the big things of God are about the
universe and creation and all. Salvation, the gospel, is the
wisdom of God. The gospel is the pinnacle of
the character of God. He's holy. He's all-powerful. He is a terrifying judge to those
who are sinners. He is all of these things, but
most of all, what is he? He's a God of grace and of salvation. Show me your glory, said Moses. This is my glory. My glory, my
pink glory, is not my power, my awesome creating of it. My glory is my salvation of sinners. That's what he said. I will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious. It's all there, the wisdom of
God. It reveals the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 1
says it. These things are all the revelation
of the wisdom of God. To them which are called, both
Jews and Greeks, the gospel is the power of God and the wisdom
of God, the wisdom of God. To those that are outside of
it, to this world, whether the religious world, you say the
religious world's all right. No, no, no. To them, to them,
the gospel of God's grace of a savior dying in the place of
his people is foolishness. Sorry, it's a stumbling block.
To the world in general, it's just ridiculous. Why would you
bother following that sort of thing? It's foolishness to them.
It's a stumbling block to the religious world. If you are a
believer and you're feeling lonely in this world, Don't be in the
least little bit surprised if you have few worldly acquaintances. That's just the way it is. That's
just what Jesus said. When the Son of Man comes again,
will he find faith on earth? Well, he knows he will amongst
those whom he has saved, but it will be rare. It will be a
rare thing. It reveals the wisdom of God. This wisdom of God. You know,
we see the unbelieving wisdom of man paraded all around us,
all of the time, in all sorts of things. It's pathetic compared
with the wisdom of God. This is the wisdom of God. This
great salvation is the wisdom of God. And how far does it stretch? In 1 Timothy 1.15, Paul describes
himself as even the chief of sinners.
There is no sinner great enough that this cannot reach to them.
You say, oh, I'm too sinful. The things I've done, the things
I've been in the past, I'm too sinful this. Do you know, we're
given, Scripture is so vast in its coverage of everything that
we might need. You know, there's a man in the
Old Testament who was a king. He was the son of Hezekiah, who
was generally speaking a pretty good king. And his grandson was
Josiah, who was a very, very good king, but Manasseh himself
was an absolutely dreadful king. And he committed the most abominable
acts. He did things that it says In
2nd Chronicles, it says that Manasseh did things that were
worse than the heathen tribes that were cast out by God when
he gave them the land of Canaan when they came out of Egypt.
And Manasseh was so bad, he reigned for 55 years, and it was a terrible
time for the people of God, for the dreadful things he did. And
he was taken captive by the king of Assyria and taken to Babylon.
Yes, I know that sounds odd, but that's what it says. in 2nd
Chronicles, the king of Assyria took him to Babylon. And when
he was there, in great difficulty, when he was there, he sought
the Lord. This terrible, terrible man that
had committed such horrible evil. And do you know what? God heard
his prayer and God saved him. And God showed him his truth.
And God caused him to be released and sent back to Jerusalem. And
he did good things in his closing years. No one is too big a sinner. No one. Do you know there's only
one unforgivable sin? And that's unbelief, because
it's the sin against the Holy Ghost. If you deny the gospel
of grace, that is the unforgivable sin. But Manasseh, even, is there
as an example that God can save sinners. Salvation to the uttermost. It's accomplished at great cost. to pay the huge debt to justice. 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter
1, and we're having communion at the end of this service, but
he says there, for as much as ye know that you who are redeemed,
you believers, were not redeemed with corruptible things, silver
and gold, the things this world regards as precious, you weren't
redeemed with corruptible things from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, Oh, well, my mum said this, and
my granddad used to say that. No, not with those things. How
were you redeemed? But with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you. You see, it was
always there in the plan and purpose of God that Christ would
come and pay that immense price, that immense price, to the justice
of God for the redemption of his people. It's missed by multitudes. Don't let it be missed by you.
Take the more earnest heed, and then look at the great power
of it. Romans 1 says this about this gospel, the gospel of great
salvation. Paul says, I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. You know, it's difficult in some
situations to speak that you believe Christ and that you're
his servant. He says, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ. Why not, Paul? For it is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is
written, the just shall live by faith. This is how we know
that those who believe the true gospel, I'm talking about the
true gospel, the gospel of sovereign grace, of particular redemption.
Those who believe that gospel of grace are those whom Christ
died to save. It's the power of God unto salvation. This is how God accomplishes
his desire that his people be with him where he is in heaven. It's by the gospel of his grace.
And God the Son himself spoke it to us. God the Son, the Word
of God, came down from heaven, and the apostles who heard him
confirmed it to us. They confirmed what they'd heard.
They were with him for three and a half years, you know, Peter,
James, John, all of the others, they were with him for three
and a half years. And they heard him, and they saw the miracles
that he performed. And then they themselves, look
what it says, God also bearing them witness, both with signs
and wonders. and with diverse miracles and
gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. It was spoken
first by the Lord and then confirmed by them that heard him, by the
apostles, with those signs of authentication, those miracles,
those tongues, those healings, those raising from the dead,
the casting out of demons. Dare you ignore or neglect this
gospel? How shall you escape eternal
justice if you do? In Hebrews 10, We read this,
because again, there are warnings throughout this epistle. Verse
38 of Hebrews 10. Now the just shall live by faith,
but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in
him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but
of them that believe unto the saving of the soul. Will you
give this the more earnest heed, the more serious attention that
it warrants? Or will you just go along that
broad way, drifting along with the rest of this world in ignorance
of the truth? The rest of this epistle of Hebrews
shows us how God in Christ has purposed and accomplished such
great salvation. I hope you have a spiritual appetite
to find out more. Okay, let's sing our final hymn
now. which is number 820. Glory to God on high. Can you
manage it? Are you sure? Because I'm sure
Christine can play the notes. Glory to God on high. Our peace
is made with heaven. And it's in preparation for having
communion, which we'll do in a few minutes. Glory to God on
high. Our peace is made with heaven.
The Son of God came down to die that sin might be forgiven.