Sermon notes from 3 October 2019
Hebrews 1 verse 1 – chapter 2 verse 4
“How shall we escape if we neglect so
great a salvation.”
The salvation that is so great. Who really wrote the book of Hebrews – some think
it was the apostle Paul. The writer was
stuck for words, couldn’t get words to describe the greatness of God’s
salvation. Why is it so great? Because of the greatness of the one who saves. As you read the first chapter of Hebrews you begin
to grasp and understand something of the Lord Jesus Christ. “God has spoken in
these past days by his son.” Who heard the word? “In the beginning was the word and the Word
was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him
was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1 verses 1 to 3) Jesus Christ who came to Bethlehem’s manger,
lived his life on earth, took our sins on his body on the cross. Through him he made the world, created the
universe we live in. Did he reveal
himself? Jesus Christ is not only
involved in the creation, he is the great revealer, “the brightness of the Father’s
glory and the express image of his person.” (verse 3) You want to know where
Christ is – you have the exact impression of God himself. If you want to know the character and nature
of God look at Christ. Not the reflection
of God but exact representation of his being.
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. He upholds all things by the word of his
power. Before all things and by him all
things exist. He is the redeemer (verse
3). He has provided perfection for our
sins. You and I know we have broken God’s
law. Before him we stand guilty. Jesus is the redeemer. Redeemer means 2 things – very specifically
to buy back and it means to restore it to its rightful owner. Jesus Christ paid the price on the cross for
the pardon of our sins. He paid the price
for our sins. It also means to restore
it to its rightful owner. Why is
salvation great – because Jesus paid the price on Calvary’s cross. Lost sinners can be restored to their
rightful place. It is so great a salvation
because Jesus himself is great. Jesus
Christ died paying a great price. 2
Corinthians 8 verse 9 “that your sakes he became poor, that ye through his
poverty might be made rich.” The riches
of Jesus Christ are beyond our total comprehension.
The richness of his position in supreme glory. He was and is the king of glory. The prophet Isaiah had a vision of the Lord
in chapter 6 “I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the
temple.” The length of the train of a
king indicated something of their position and glory. “Woe is me for I am undone I am a man of
unclean lips.” He sees these angelic
beings and they cried “holy, holy, holy is the Lord.” When we think of the greatness of salvation
we need to think of the greatness of our Lord in glory.
The richness of his communion.
The 3 persons in the trinity in one person Jesus Christ. We need to be careful when we say Christ
became poor. “He emptied himself of all
but love.” Charles Wesley. In Philippians
2 we read that he laid aside his glory, everything. Jesus Christ did not lay aside his deity, his
glory yes but not his deity. To know
something of the power of Christ, the one who came from honour to hatred, a
palace to a stable, a throne to a manger, a heavenly home to homelessness. Matthew 8 verse 20 “The foxes have holes, and
the birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his
head.” Not just material poverty but his
incarnation. He laid aside his glory for
you and me. Why is salvation so
great? Have we grasped it – the eternal
Son of the living God that he might go to the cross, bear on his own body our
sin on himself. So great a salvation.
How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation. A neglect that is so dangerous. There are 3 ways you can neglect God’s
salvation. First you can reject the word
of God. There are people who do reject
the inspired word of God. They dismiss
it as not really relevant to me “I will live my life my way.” They are dismissing the relevance of the
gospel to themselves. Some people will
resent the preacher, resist the holy spirit, renounce the Saviour. That is what is meant by saying “neglect
salvation.” The bible describes the
person who says that as a fool. The second
way people can neglect is the phrase “to make light of.” Matthew 22 verse 5 tells the story of the
marriage of the king’s son. The
invitation goes out “I have prepared everything, things are ready.” The servants are told to go out with the
invitations “come for all things are now ready.” We know what happened in this situation – we read
of 2 particular individuals, one wanted to go to his farm and the other went to
his business. They made light of the
invitation. They basically said “I have
bought a farm and I need to go and see it.”
The other man was busy with his merchandise. So busy.
Can I look at you tonight – one of the greatest perils of life is to be
too busy to attend to our souls. One of
the ways the devil tricks is by encouraging us to pursue sporting activities, academic
pursuits, family responsibilities. When
it comes to spiritual things we make light of it. Haven’t time for that. The third way some people neglect salvation
is by becoming a drifter. Hebrews 2 “lest
at any time we should let them slip.”
Drifting away. There are a lot of
these people tonight. Drifting through
life. Simply drifting along. The drifter is someone who certainly doesn’t
intend to be in hell, not rejecting God, not saying I don’t want anything to do
with it – he is someone who says I was taught the gospel as a child, maybe
accepted Christ but when my teenage years came all was set to one side.” The right thing to do is put Christ at the
centre of our lives. “Seek first the
kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.” We know all that but we become drifters. It is not an intentional thing, it is just we
drift along. It might be tonight God wants
to say to someone that you have become a drifter. The siren is sounding. The Holy Spirit is tugging at your heart,
warning of the danger of continuing to drift.
Drifting to the point of no return.
Are you drifting along? A
dangerous path to follow.
The escape that is just so impossible. A tragic reality – “how shall we escape.” There is no escape if we neglect God’s
salvation. How can we escape hunger if
we neglect food? How can we escape
darkness if we neglect light? How shall
we escape the wages of sin if we neglect the atonement of sin? How shall we escape the condemnation of hell
if we neglect the salvation of heaven? The
Bible speaks very clearly in Luke 16 about 2 individuals. Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus was a beggar who lay at the rich man’s
gate and was full of sores. The dogs
licked his wounds. Both men died and the
poor man was carried by the angel’s into Abraham’s bosom meaning heaven. The rich man died and was buried. We don’t read of the old beggar being
buried. There was plenty of pomp and
show at the rich man’s funeral. He died
and in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment. He remembers every opportunity he had for his
future to have been really different.
One of the dreadful things about hell is we will remember the times we
heard the gospel, when the Holy Spirit pleaded with us, stirred our heart, we
will remember the times when we rejected Christ in meetings like this. He wanted the old beggar to dip the tip of
his finger in water to cool his tongue.
That passage should make us shudder.
The lostness of a soul. It is
clearly a picture Jesus teaches about someone who rejected salvation. Salvation is great tonight. If you neglect it, it will lead you to a
place of eternal torment, separated from God forever. Many have good intentions, intend to get
saved. We can put it off, neglect it
until it will be too late and we will be forever lost. Are you neglecting by rejecting, by drifting,
intending some time to do it? The bible
is clear “behold now is the day of salvation”, now is the right time, not
tomorrow, right now. Simply but
sincerely say “Lord I need to confess my sin to you, I am coming to you, I am
going to open the door and take you into my life.
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