In Hebrews chapter 2 and verse
3, the apostle Paul asked a question. And he asked this question by
divine inspiration. And this question he asked, I
hope, by the same spirit that inspired him to say it, will
inspire us to think on it. and ask ourselves that question
today. Now here's the question, Hebrews
chapter two, verse three. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? If we neglect. One which at the first began
to be spoken by the Lord. Well that takes away all questions
about it, don't it? This was God come into the flesh
and God in human flesh preached these things. Which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord and then later It was confirmed unto us by them
that heard him. Well maybe they just said they
heard him. No, listen. God also bearing them witness. Now Peter starts out his message
back in Acts. This way he said that the Lord,
that God confirmed the works of Christ. And he did it through
miracles and wonders and signs which he did before your eyes,
before every one of them. Now this was first spoken by
the Lord and later confirmed unto us by them that heard him,
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and
divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his
own will. The message I titled this morning,
Neglect a Hopeless Cause. Hopeless. It's hopeless. If I drive up to a stop sign
next to a busy four-lane highway, and I drive up there, and I'm
in a hurry, and I just say, well, I ain't stopping, and I drive
out into that traffic, I'm gonna get hit. I'd be killed if I neglect to obey the sign. Now there may be what I think
at the time good reasons to ignore the stop sign, but that's all
going to take a back seat when that semi T-bones me when I pull
out there. You see what I'm saying? That's
neglect. The person goes to the doctor
for a checkup. Doctor tells him that there's
certain signs and evidences and he suspects that he's got some
serious problem. Wants to run some further tests.
But he said, well, I ain't got time right now. I have to go
here, I have to do that, I gotta go do this. And he ignores them. Suddenly he dies. Suddenly he
dies. He neglected. He neglected. what he knew he needed to do. Neglected. Neglect is a hopeless cause,
especially when it concerns your soul. Your soul is eternal. It's going to go on. This world
is not the end of your soul. This body's gonna go back to
the dust from which it's taken, but your soul is going to the
Lord. You're gonna stand before him. And neglect is just a hopeless
cause when it concerns your soul. Now let me give you several things
this morning to help you see what these verses are talking
about, and maybe the Holy Spirit will be gracious and cause these
things to have a profound effect. and impact on our hearts. And
the first thing not even mentioned in our text, but it's supposed,
what are we escaping from? Huh? Every time I've ever heard that
word escape used, it's been by somebody in bondage, somebody
locked up in prison, somebody confined to a certain area and
they had to escape, had to escape The Indians took them captive
and they had to escape. You remember the Great Wall that
separated the two parts of Germany. And those on the communist side
were always trying to dig tunnels, they were always trying to escape.
So when you're talking about escaping, there's a problem supposed. There's a problem. It's not even
mentioned in the text, but it's presumed in the text to be known
by the hearer. And that is that he is under
the condemnation of God and under the bondage of sin. And he's going to perish. If
he does nothing, he's going to perish. If he just says to himself,
whatever will be, will be, he's going to perish. If he says, well, I know they
go down there, but I can't go down there, and I can't stand
to sit, and I can't stand the temperature, and I can't do this,
and I can't... You're going to perish! This is presumed to be known
by the hearer, and that is that he's under the condemnation of
God. He's under the bondage of sin.
Man thinks he's free, even when he gets it in his head. Somebody
just keeps telling him over and over and over, you know, you're
under sin, you're under sin. Pretty soon he says, okay, I'm
under sin, I see that. But he still don't believe it.
I tell you, when you believe in your own condemnation, when
you believe it, you'll seek the Lord. I guarantee that. And you ain't gonna wait. There
ain't no way. There ain't no sleep. You know
what I'm talking about. You ain't just going to go to
bed and say, well, what will be, will be. No, you won't either.
You'll seek the Lord with all your heart. You'll think that
you're going to perish any minute. And you know if you do, you're
going to stand before God guilty and going to be condemned forever. Well, you say, preacher, everybody
knows they're a sinner. Do they? Huh? Do they? Now, I know this. I believe every man, woman, boy,
and girl has a conscience. And this conscience condemns
us when we do what we know we shouldn't do. It'll condemn you. In Romans chapter 2, the Apostle
Paul in verse 14, he said, when the Gentiles, which have not
the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having
not a law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law
written in their hearts. Now watch this. Their consciences
also bearing witness and their thoughts either accusing or excusing
one another. Folks have a conscience, whether
they like to admit it or not, and these transgressions of the
conscience are sufficient to condemn those who violate that
conscience. Tells us that in Romans 1, therefore
they have no excuse. They're without excuse. But here
in Hebrews 2, he's not talking about the conscience. He's talking
about the promised Redeemer here. He's talking about hearing. Hearing. He's talking about the coming
of God's promised Redeemer. He whom the Father appointed
heir of all things and through whom He created all things. who alone manifested the brightness
of the Father's glory and expressed the image of his person. How
did he do that? I don't like to read things and
just assume people know. How did he manifest the character
of God? He manifested God's character
of justice when he went to the cross. when he closed his mouth
and didn't say a word because he was a representative man.
He came here to die for his people. He came here as a substitute
for his elect. And when he was condemned of
God, he opened not his mouth. He didn't make any pleas. He
was guilty. And he bore that guilt before God. And they put
him on that cross. He manifested God's character
of absolute justice. And at the same time, manifesting
God's character of mercy, and grace, and righteousness, and
on and on it goes. He was the brightness of the
Father's glory. You want to know who God is,
study Christ. That's God come into the flesh.
Now theologians like Philip, they want to say, well, show
us the Father and it suffices us. That ain't nothing suffice
an intellectual. You can't do it. You just go
on and on and on and he still wants to go on and on some more.
Christ just looked at him and said, have you been so long time
with me and have you not known the Father? Have you not seen?
He that seeth me hath seen the Father. When I put my arm around you
and told you that I loved you and shared my food with you and
spoke to you and fed your soul, that was the Father. That was
the Father. He's the brightness of the Father's
glory. He's the expressed image of His
person. We don't have to doubt who God
is. Christ manifested who God is. And Jesus Christ, now listen
to me, came into this world as a Savior. Nothing else. A Savior. Thou shalt call His
name Jesus, for He shall save His people from His sins. You know what the word Jesus
means? It's Greek for the Old Testament word Joshua. And it
means savior. When he came into this world,
he came into this world as a savior. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. That's what he said. And Paul
said this is a faithful saying. Who said it? Christ did. This
is a faithful saying, Paul said to Timothy, that Jesus Christ
came into this world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. The very presence of Jesus Christ
manifests our need for a savior. If God could save a man in any
way he wanted to, or by any other means, he would not have subjected
his son to that kind of humility and pain and suffering. He came because it's the only
way God could be just and justify sinners. It manifests our need of a savior. I ain't talking about somebody
who temporarily lost their way. I'm just a little confused, preacher. I'm not even talking to you.
I'm not talking about somebody just got off the beaten path
a little bit. I'm not talking about that man
or woman who's pretty good compared to other folks. I'm not perfect,
but I'm better than a bunch. Paul said he was at the bottom
of the drum. I'm talking about the scriptural
definition of a sinner. Christ didn't die for our sins
according to man's evaluation of morality. He died for our
sins, now listen, according to the scriptures. You wanna know
what you are, go to the book, it'll tell you. When you say I have good thoughts
sometimes I have bad thoughts. That ain't what scripture said.
Scripture said every imagination of the heart of man was only
evil continually. Even his thoughts of God were
like filthy rags. All his righteousnesses. He died for a people who fell
in Adam. We're all judged and condemned
of God in him. I just, I get so weary of intellectuals
explaining away the conviction of sin, don't you? When they're done, the sinner
don't know any more than he did when they started. They explained
it all away. Man is a vile, God-hating rebel. And I don't care who you are
or what you do. You might be a piano player at the First Baptist
Church and get up there every Sunday in your long dress and
your hair all put up nice and neat, and everybody thinks you're
just an angel in disguise, and you play that piano, and everybody
just puts you on. You're a vile, God-hating rebel,
what you are. That's what the Bible says. The carnal mind, he said, is
enmity. It's hostility toward God. Well, you say, I don't hate God.
You don't hate your God. When do you find out who God
is? First time somebody preaches to you an honest gospel and you
hear who God is, all of a sudden, boy, that face turns red, that
Adam's apple starts running up and down, he's madder than a
wet hornet. Why? Because the carnal mind is enmity,
hostility towards God, can't stand it. Stephen preached to
those men and they were getting ready to stone him. And he said,
you're just like your daddy. They hated God and so do you.
And they stopped their ears and ran on him and gnashed on him
with their teeth. Why? Because the carnal mind
is enmity against God. He preached to them the God of
the Bible. Scriptures tell us the wicked
are astraying from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. Ephesians 2.3 tells us that apart
from the quickening grace of God, we were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. And I'm telling you, this is
just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to God's testimony toward
man. Job said he drinks iniquity like
water. God don't put no trust. He said
he don't even put trust in his saints. The sun and the moon, they're
not pure in his sight. And the presence of the son of
God in the body of a representative man manifests the greatness of
man's depravity. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? If the son of God himself must
come into the flesh to save us, how great must our sin and depravity
be? All right, here's the second
thing I want you to see. This verse is about neglecting what
you've heard. In chapter one, Paul sets forth
the eternal son of God coming into this world to manifest the
glory of God in the salvation of sinners. He tells you who
he is. He doesn't hold anything back.
He said, this one through whom God speaks now is his son. This
is who all those prophets gave witness of. This is his son.
This is God coming into the flesh. And then listen to how he begins
chapter two. Therefore we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. Not the things which we have
thought, the things which we've heard. Lest at any time we should let
them slip. In the Old Testament, God often
sent his angels to deliver his message to men. And Paul affirms
here that everything those angels said came to pass, exactly as
they said it. And that being so, how shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation spoken by the Lord
himself and by eyewitnesses of him? All who were confirmed of
God by miracles and wonders and signs and gifts of the Holy Ghost,
gifts of discernment and inspiration and providential guidance and
the Spirit forbade them from going here and guided them to
go there and so on and so on. And even the birth of believers. Paul said, I have begotten you
through the gospel. God used me. concerning your
new birth. That's what he told the Corinthians. And our text is not asking how
we're gonna escape without our adherence to the law or without
our going to church or joining the church. He asked how should
we escape if we neglect so great salvation preached by our Lord
and preached by his disciples. He's talking about the hearing
of the gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ. And this gospel,
Peter said, is the stone that those Jews laid aside. And they're building that spiritual
temple. And they saw that stone and they said, that's not going
to fit in our temple. They threw it aside. They called
it out. In Acts chapter four verse 12,
neither is there salvation in any other for there's none other
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And though this man Paul said,
he said through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
And by him all that believe are justified from all things from
which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. He preached
Christ. Christ preached Christ. And the
disciples preached Christ. And anybody worth his salt today
preaches Christ. There's none other name given.
What else you gonna preach? And Paul followed these words
over in Acts 13, 40. He said, beware therefore. lest that come upon you which
is spoken in the prophets, behold you despisers, and wander and
perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it unto you. If my understanding is correct,
and I believe with all my heart that it is, there's only one
way for any man to escape the certain doom of God's wrath upon
sin, and that is to hear and embrace the Savior and trust
in Him alone. Some men feel at ease to neglect
the hearing of the gospel. That's what he's talking about
here. How are you going to escape if you neglect it? These are the means that God's
ordained for the salvation of your soul, and you're just going
to put them on the shelf, put them in the pantry. I'll get
a bite of that when I get hungry. They feel at ease to neglect
the hearing of the gospel. Some men feel at ease to neglect
the means of salvation as God has set them forth. And some men feel at ease to
stand on the ground of their own reasoning in spite of the
clear instruction of God. Well, it seems to me. That makes me want to throw up
when I hear somebody say that. There's a way that seemeth right
unto a man. The end thereof is destruction.
That's what Solomon said. But the Holy Ghost himself asked
these questions. He said, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord be saved. Any man, anywhere, any
woman, any boy, any girl calls upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. Now, how are you going to call
on Him in whom you have not believed? And how are you going to believe
in Him of whom you have not heard? And how are you going to hear
without a preacher? Now the Holy Ghost said that, I didn't say
that. He said that, I'm just quoting what it says over in
Romans chapter 10. And how's he gonna preach if
God don't send him? He won't know where to go, he
won't know who to talk to. And I'm gonna tell you something,
God's gonna hold you in account not only for what you've heard,
but for what you could have heard and didn't. How you gonna escape
if you neglect? And then thirdly, the crime of
neglect is made even greater as it has to do with so great
salvation. You know the one thing I remember
more than anything else about the religion I grew up in? There
was nothing great in it. It was just average at best. Just average. There was nothing
eternal in it. There was nothing divine in it.
There was nothing miraculous about it. It was just average.
We went to church, we sang songs, we prayed prayers, and we went
home. There was nothing in it. There's nothing great. You came
down an aisle, you said some words that somebody told you
to say, you accepted Jesus. I never one time, the whole time
I went to church, ever heard about the fall of man. Not one
time. Never heard it preached. Never
heard his depravity made known or even mentioned. Nobody ever
told me the impossibility of man saving himself. That rich
young ruler, man, he done everything. He said, I kept the law. Whew,
that's a mouthful, ain't it? Now, he didn't keep the law,
but he thought he did. Outwardly, he did. And he walked away, and
the disciples looked at each other and said, who then can
be saved? If he can't be saved, who then can be saved? And the
Lord knew what they were thinking, and he said, with man, it is
impossible. Anybody ever tell you that? It's
impossible. So if you are struggling, quit
struggling. You can't do it. God has to do
it. I never one time ever heard in
religion the eternal savior, the covenant surety, the federal
headship of Christ's preach. That this was our representative.
This was our substitute. And that his sacrifice was particular. He died for a certain people. And when he died, he redeemed
them. They preach a redemption that don't redeem. They preach
a salvation that don't save. God's done all he can do. Now
it's all up to you. Give me a break. God who made the world has done
all he can do, and now it's up to you? I feel sometimes like Elijah
standing there watching those 400 prophets of Baal. They're
dancing around and cutting themselves with knives. And no fire come
down to consume the sacrifice. And he said, why don't you call
a little louder? He said, perhaps your God is
asleep. God done all he can do. There was nothing amazing about
their religion or nothing great. Here Paul's talking about a great
salvation. A salvation that saves. A salvation
that's sealed in eternity. Sealed, sitting at the right
hand of God. Never one time heard a message
on the sufficiency of the death of Christ. And at best, his death was preached
as an offer. Just an offer. It was a universal invitation.
And listening as closely as I could, I do not ever remember hearing
anything to inspire confidence in anything except a man. It's all up to you. Huh? Well, where does God fit into
this? But the gospel sets before men
a great salvation, God coming into the flesh. Can you imagine? God, in whom the universe dwells,
coming into this world as an infant and lying in a manger. Somebody said, I sure would like
to hear somebody explain to me how God, how Christ was made
sin. Well, I said, I ain't got over
His incarnation yet. I'm still working on that. God
becoming a man. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Huh? Woo, you complete in Him. That's a great salvation. A priest
so worthy that he can save to the uttermost those who come
unto God by him. That old priest, you go over
and kiss his ring, and he's so feminine, he holds that little
hand out. He needs to carry a purse. People
look to him for salvation. Bless you, my son. Huh? Here's a priest here, Jesus Christ,
our high priest. He can save to the uttermost
those who come unto God by him. That's a great salvation. Here's
a salvation, Russell, you didn't have anything to do with. God
did this from the beginning. God completed it. God accomplished
it. God approved it. And God still
applies it. It's all of God, it's a great
salvation. And that's what makes the crime
so bad, of neglecting it. God saves a man, he saves a man,
he saved. God saves a man, that man is
as righteous as God. Huh? Is that right? It's exactly
right. God can't find a flaw in him. He's faultless, the scripture
said, before the presence of his glory. Why? Because he robed in the righteousness
of Christ. He's as good as God. That rich
young ruler said, good master? He just stopped him there. He
said, why callest thou me good? There's none good but God. Well,
if I have his righteousness, I have the righteousness of God. And what's religion do? Paul
said they're going about ignorantly trying to establish their own
righteousness and would not submit, now listen, to the righteousness
of God. Oh, my soul. Faultless. When God saves a man,
He saves him by His grace, freely and without consideration of
anything that man's ever done or ever will do. Saves him by
His grace. It's all of grace. When God saves
a man, He gives him a new nature, a new heart, and a new mind. He makes him willing in the day
of his power. When God saves a man, that man
is saved. Christ gives him eternal life. And he said, no man's going to
pluck you out of my hand. And he said, my father is greater
than all, and no man's going to pluck you out of his hand
either. Old religious false prophet told
me one time, said, yeah, but he can pluck himself out, really. All that the Father hath given
me, he said, will come to me, and him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. When God saves a person, that
person's saved. He gives that person an inheritance.
Now listen, incorruptible and undefiled, which fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for him. How'd that happen? Well, according
to Ephesians 2, It says, but God, who is rich in mercy, and
for that great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in trespasses and sin, quickened us together with Christ, by grace
ye are saved, and hath raised us up together with him, and
seated us together with him in the heavens. Huh? Reserved in
heaven for you. who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto this great salvation which is ready to be
revealed in the last days. That's not what religion says.
Religion said it's all for naught if you don't let God do this
or that or something else. Can you imagine? Can you imagine God standing
here like this, waiting on you to let him do something? You can. You're deceived. He told David, he said, honey,
he said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you. I wouldn't tell you. What could
you do about it if I did? all these cattle on thousand
hills, they all belong to me. What are you going to do? Let God. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? A salvation preached by the Lord
himself and by his holy disciples and
both confirmed of God. What did these men preach that
God so undeniably confirmed? They preached that man is a hopeless,
helpless sinner, but for the grace of God. That's what they
preached. Here they were, boy, they were
going through their rituals just like we do. Going through their
rituals and then going to the synagogue and bringing the sacrifices
and bringing the Wave offerings and doing all this, they're just
going about doing all these things. He came up there to the feast
and he looked around and said, he cried out loud,
he said, anybody thirsty? Come and drink. Come unto me,
all you that are weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. I'll
give you what you can't find in the law. I'll give you what
you can't find coming to the front of the church. I'll give
you what you can't find signing. I swear I'll take 10% for the
rest of my life. I'll give you what you can't
get any place else. Come to me. How you gonna escape? Huh? How you gonna escape? They preached that man was a
helpless, hopeless sinner, that Christ is the eternal, effectual,
and sovereign Savior of His elect, that redemption is a work already
accomplished. Don't you get weary of people
telling you they got saved? Well, I need to get saved. They preach that men and women
are saved by grace through faith and that faith cometh by hearing,
hearing by the word of God. Everything, now listen to me,
everything that God has for sinners is in Christ. You get him, you
got it all. I don't wanna hear yeah, but, no,
goats but, sheep don't but. Sheep just cuddle. They cuddle
and they eat grass and they walk out before the shepherd. Goat's
butt. I'm telling you. Paul said, don't
you get sidetracked, don't you be beguiled, don't you be deceived,
don't you go after the reasoning of this world and the deception
of religious leaders, don't you go there. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete. That means you
got it all in him. And he's the head. I know Satan's
still out there, and I know the rulers of the darkness still
out there, but he's the head of all principality and power.
And we're complete in him. Now, He said, when that man gets
on you about mowing your grass on the Sabbath, tell him he don't
know God. That's right. Don't you let anybody
hold you in account of Sabbath days and holy days and all of
those things. Don't do it. Those things were
shadows. Christ is the body. You see what
I'm saying? If you got Christ, you got it
all. Everything God has for sinners
is in Him. Oh Lord, help this pitiful preacher
to set his son forth in the way that he needs to be praised.
To honor him and lift him up. Lift him up so that all men might
see him and trust in him and come to him. Like that old preacher said,
he was over in Glasgow. He was going to a, I guess he
had to lecture at one of the colleges over there. I forget
the old preacher's name, but he'd written many books. He said
it was a fair morning. He wanted to walk down to the
college. And he was walking there through
the bay. And he came up on there, and they was having a big auction.
And he said, I peeked in to see what was going on, and they were
auctioning off paintings. And he said, I looked, and the
auctioneer was behind the painting. He was holding the painting up.
All you could see was his hands and his feet. And every time
he'd say something, he'd point. He knew that painting that well,
but he would point. He said, oh, Lord. He said, when
I get down to that college, let me preach Christ that way. All
they can see is Christ. I'm just a finger. I'm just pointing. May God bless his word and bless
the preaching of his gospel.