How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 23 APRIL 2023 pm

HEBREWS 2 VERSES 1 – 4

NO PLAN B

Verse 3 “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”  What does this salvation do tonight?  It changes our lives.  From the moment you believe on Christ and take him as Saviour and Lord it will break the power of sin and set you on your way to heaven and home.  Jesus sets a goal for us tonight whether in our talk, our witness, our lives, our preaching.  John said “if I be lifted up I will draw all men unto myself.”  The word “lift” has a double meaning.  It certainly means being lifted up on the cross.  That is what Jesus talked of.  When they took him from the Judgment Hall and out to Calvary, placed on a wooden cross and then was lifted up between heaven and earth.  In our preaching we must make much of the atoning death of Christ.  Yes it is good to speak of the miracles, to take time to look at Jesus’ teaching but we can speak of nothing greater, nothing more important that the death of Christ.  To Nicodemus Jesus spoke of the serpent in the wilderness.  The people began to disobey God, they complained and God allowed the serpents to come in and bite them.  That poison flowed through their veins.  God gave the remedy through the brazen serpent made and set up in the centre of the camp.  When everyone looked at the serpent they would be healed.  Jesus then said “even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”  As I point you to the Lord, wounded and bruised, hung on that middle cross.  As you gaze on him he was doing that for you.  I am inviting you now to come.  There is another thought to that word “lifted”.  It speaks of lifting up and being exalted on the throne of God.  To be king of our lives.  Is he Lord tonight?  Is he seated on the throne?  As others look on us what do they see? Hebrews was written to Christians going through a difficult time.  The writer gives a comparison – how Jesus is more superior than the angels, the law, the sacrifices, the priests.  Then the writer says “therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip.”

It is a great privilege.  The writer tells us “to the things we have heard”.  There is no greater privilege than that day when you heard the preaching of God’s own precious word in your own language.  We have some great privileges – to be born into a good family, a family of wealth, living a life of luxury.  There is nothing wrong with any of that.  Nor to have a lovely car, a lovely home, a good job but to hear the word of God is the greatest privilege of all.  God had a great love for you, to send his Son into this sin cursed world and he went to the cross of Calvary to die for you.  Do you hear the crying of his heart – “my God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?”  God pours his mercies on you tonight.  The writer to the Hebrews gives a warning – to give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard.  It is one thing to hear but we must do also.  Jesus likened it to 2 men building a house.  One building on the sand, someone hearing the word and ignoring it.  The other man built on the rock and it stood firm when tests and trials came.  Your life and mine one day will go through a terrible time of testing. Only one life will endure – that which is built on the rock of Christ.  “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own self.”  We find peace with God as we do the work of God.  Acts 13 verse 1 the apostle Paul goes to the city of Antioch.  He was sitting in the synagogue when the leader said to him “if you have any words by way of exhortation say on.”  Paul gets up to preach and goes right back to the days of Egypt.  When the people came out into the wilderness there were 40 years of blessing and barriers.  When they entered into Canaan they asked for a king and Saul was appointed.  Then David became king and Christ came from his family.  He told how Christ died on the cross. God raised him from the dead.  Those hearing him that day asked Paul to preach again the following Sabbath.  They were so interested they wanted him again and again.  When he went in to the synagogue the following Sunday “the whole city came together to hear the word of God.”  They were interested in the things of God, the word of God.  They didn’t want it to slip by.  Do not let the word of God slip by.  You need to be saved. 

The great promise.  Eternal life.  The salvation of God for the soul of man.  Don’t let these things slip by you.  Seize it tonight.  Apply it to your heart.  In that great chapter of Romans 10 Paul describes the means of God’s salvation.  Verse 13 – what an invitation that is.  Have you called on the Lord tonight?  Upon him in truthfulness?  If you have you will be saved.  Don’t let the devil fool you out of that.  “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Paul takes up this theme in Romans 10 “how shall they be saved if they don’t hear.”  Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  It is the mercy of God that gives us the opportunity to spend all eternity with him.  Paul was speaking to Timothy about the privilege of his home life.  He had a godly grandmother who loved the Lord.  He also had a godly mother as well.  That makes a difference in the home.  We have to pray for the next generation.  These 2 people prayed and taught Timothy – “continue in those things you have learned, from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures.”  Through the hearing of God’s word we can enter into God’s salvation.  Many will not hear the word of God, will not be invited to come to the cross to look to Christ to be saved.  “All scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for reproof, for instruction.”  What an opportunity we have tonight to hear the word of God.  Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China.  He was asked by a man who had been converted through one of his meetings “how long has England had this message?”  Hudson replied “we have known the gospel for hundreds of years.”  That man said “my father sought out the truth for 20 years and died without it, why did you not come sooner?”  That promise could be yours tonight.  Remember when you were at school and it came to the end of the year when there was a prize day.  The promise of God is available now.

The great peril.  To let it slip by. Simply to hear about God’s salvation then to let it slip away.  The Philippian jailer said to Paul “what must I do to be saved?”  Sometimes we can take the idea that there is nothing we can do and rightly so.  Paul told him “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”  Believe on the penalty he paid.  The price was great but that is all we need.  Remember the man on the cross beside Jesus.  The man who turned from his abusive tongue who realised he was dying in his sins.  He looks to Jesus and says “remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”  In Acts 10 we read of Cornelius.  A Roman centurion.  The message came right to where he was – on his hands and knees pleading for God’s salvation.  An angel came and told him to send for Peter in Joppa and he will tell you words whereby you might be saved.

The greatest problem.  If you allow this to slip away from you, from what he has done for you, what a problem you have because there is no plan B.  Have you grasped what God has done for you?  Or are you going to let it slip?  The picture is here of a boat not properly fastened to its moorings.  Letting something slip from your hands.  Like snow falling from a roof of a house.  You can let this message slip with heavenly consequences.  Think of the 2 men in Luke chapter 16.  One was a rich man and the other a poor man.  The rich man died and was buried and in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment.  Think of all the privileges he had.  He had the word of God in his own house and had a godly presence in the beggar lying at his gate.  Yet he ended up in hell.  You can do the same because you have let the gospel slip.