Good morning, saints.
Can we just begin with a word of prayer?
Lord, as I stand before You now, I stand in fear, knowing that apart from You, I can do nothing. Lord, truly none of us, apart from You, can do anything.
Lord, unless You move now, this time is of no value. Lord, unless You speak, unless You enable us to hear, it is all for nothing.
So we look to Thee, Lord. We ask Thee, Lord, that by Your Holy Spirit, You will enable us both to speak and to hear. Lord, we truly want to commit this time into Your hands and pray in Your precious Son’s name. Amen.
Primarily, we will be reading out of the New American Standard Version. We will look at a lot of Scriptures, so I hope your fingers are in good shape this morning.
Well, if we were to ask the question as to what the greatest need of the church is today, there would probably be a lot of different answers. But I wonder if the answer would not be to have ears to hear what He is speaking to us.
Now, when we say to have ears to hear, we mean it as it is defined in the Scriptures, which includes hearing from the heart in a simple response of faith.
You know, we have been looking in the book of Genesis, and we have been studying recently about Abraham. We see a beautiful illustration of this—a man who had ears to hear.
When God appeared to him and said, “Go to a country that I will show you,” what did Abraham do? He responded. He responded in simple faith. There was no rationalizing, no debating, no weighing of the pluses and minuses. He just went.
And that is kind of the burden of my heart: that we would be those who have ears to hear.
In James 1:22-24, to kind of kick our time off, it says:
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;
for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
We know that recently the Lord has spoken to us. He spoke to us strongly this summer at the conference. He has spoken strongly to us recently in various ministries, as well as Sunday nights at the brothers’ meetings. We believe the Lord wants to presently speak to us and to continue to speak to us.
And yes, we do know there are times when the Lord is silent. We saw that even in the life of Abraham. There were times when several years passed and he did not hear from the Lord. But that is not the Lord’s heart. The Lord’s heart is to reveal Himself to us. The Lord’s heart is to speak to us.
But the question is, do we have ears to hear? When He does speak, what is our response?
So my burden for this time is simply having ears to hear. Sometimes we do not have ears to hear because we have not responded to what the Lord has already spoken to us. So we need to give earnest heed to what has been said.
Now, what we would like to do is look at some sections in the book of Hebrews together. May the Lord grant us grace, because I believe we are at a very critical time in history. I believe we are at a very critical time in this assembly, and may I add, individually.
If we are to go on spiritually, individually and corporately, we need to hear the Lord. Our thoughts, our opinions, our concepts, our desires, and our leanings are of no value spiritually. It is only through His word that we can survive.
You remember Peter once said, “Where are we to go, Lord? Because You are the One who has the words of eternal life.” I am telling you where we are going to go if we do not listen to this word: we are going to go the way of destruction. We are going to go the way of a fruitless, void, meaningless path. So may God have mercy on us.
Now, the book of Hebrews is a letter of exhortation. We find this in Hebrews 13:22. Let us all look at that together.
Hebrews 13:22 says:
But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.
It is interesting, is it not? It is thirteen chapters. Actually, I think of it as a fairly long letter, but he says, “I have written to you briefly.” As our brother wrote this letter, he was so consumed with that One that it was like he wrote briefly.
I am not going to dwell on who wrote this letter. I find it interesting how many will say this brother or that brother. It does not tell us, so let us leave it there. We just know it is the word of God.
The main point of this letter is that God has spoken to us in His Son. We need to consider who this Son is, what He has done, and what the message to us is today.
Within the letter of Hebrews, we find at least five exhortations. The emphasis of these exhortations is to press on and not lose heart; to look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith; our Apostle and High Priest; and to continue on in the race set before us.
Now, the Greek word for exhortation is paraklesis, and it means “to call alongside.” It takes in the meaning of to heed, to warn against, and to encourage.
A coin has two sides, and this word exhortation mainly has two sides to it. One side is to encourage, and the other side is to warn against.
So, as we have said, there are five exhortations mainly in this letter to the Hebrews. In particular, what we want to do is focus on the five warnings within these exhortations. Why? Because if you really care for someone and you see them approaching a dangerous situation, you are going to want to warn them. You are going to want to point out the perils ahead.
You are going to want them to heed the warning.
Now, we do want to make it clear that these warnings are addressed to believers and that they are progressive in nature.
Let me identify the five warnings, or dangers, that we want to consider together.
Now, as we have stated, these warnings are progressive in nature. It starts with being indifferent, that is, having no particular interest or concern. We start to drift due to neglecting Him who speaks.
Then, as we drift, we begin to doubt the word and not respond, which in turn causes us to become dull to the word. This can then bring about a despising, which causes a shrinking back.
You remember the Scripture that speaks about the dog returning to his vomit? If not reversed, the shrinking back will lead to a turning away—an utter refusal to respond to the Lord: apostasy.
Now, what is going to happen to those who follow this course? We will look at this as we go on. But may we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying through the word.
Now, this morning, we would like to look at this first warning referred to in the book of Hebrews. Again, we find it in Hebrews 2:1-4.
There are fourteen verses that precede this section—that is chapter 1—and there are fourteen verses that come after it, which is the remainder of chapter 2. These are the key to this section.
The preceding verses, chapter 1, really set forth the glory of the Son. The following verses in chapter 2 set forth the suffering of the Son of Man. Or you can put it like this: the verses in chapter 1 speak of the person of the Lord Jesus; the verses in chapter 2 speak of the work of the Lord Jesus.
Now, let us turn, if you are not already there, to Hebrews 2. We are going to read these first four verses together. Again, I am reading out of the New American Standard Version. I will insert some other versions occasionally.
Hebrews 2:1-4 says:
For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.
For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty,
how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,
God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
Weymouth says here, “How will we escape if we neglect, or are indifferent to, so great a salvation?”
Notice that the section before us begins with, “For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard.” The New King James Version says, “Give the more earnest heed to what we have heard.”
What is the reason why we should pay much closer attention? We find it in chapter 1. It is simply because of Who has spoken.
Now, if you turn back to Hebrews 1 and look at verse 1, let us read a couple more verses together. Speaking of the reason why we should pay much closer attention, Hebrews 1:1-2 says:
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
in these last days has spoken to us in Son.
So God had formerly spoken in bits and pieces through the prophets. Though they spoke of and for God, they were limited due to their frailty as men. They could only reveal portions. They did not have the full revelation. They did not have the capacity to speak in the fullness of God.
But these verses tell us that in these last days God has spoken to us in Son—spoken to us in the person of the Son. The Son is able to speak in fullness and finality, and in full, clear revelation of God.
This One who has spoken to us the full revelation of God’s heart and mind is the One whom God appointed heir of all things. Weymouth says He is “the predestined Lord of the universe,” and through Him God also made the world.
So the Son is the center and the focal point of the universe. He created all things, and all things exist for Him.
Now, Hebrews 1:3 goes on to say:
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.
Weymouth says, “He brightly reflects God’s glory.” John said, “We saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
You remember the story of the Mount of Transfiguration, where it was said of our Lord Jesus:
And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light.
Only the Son could reflect God’s glory in all His fullness. Why? Because He alone is the exact representation of His nature.
Weymouth says He is “the exact representation of His being.” He bears the exact imprint of God, as His being is the very substance of God.
John 14:9 makes a tremendous statement:
He who has seen Me has seen the Father.
These verses go on to say that He “upholds all things by the word of His power.” He not only created all things, but He is sovereign over all things. He guides and controls all things.
This is the One who is the very reflection of God’s glory and the very expression of God’s nature. This is the One who, in complete and utter grace, has made purification of sins.
Weymouth says, “Securing man’s purification from sin.” He has purged the defilement of man’s sin from this universe. He has removed that which was offensive to God’s holiness and righteousness. Today, He sits at the right hand of the Father. He has returned to His rightful place as the Sovereign of the universe.
Now, it is interesting. Chapter 1 goes on to point out that this One is superior not only to the prophets, but He is superior to the angels.
I do not think most of us would argue with that. But there are some who equate Him with angels. They even go so far as to say that He is an angel.
But Hebrews 1:4 says:
Having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
This word better is a key word in the letter to the Hebrews. He is much better than the angels. What is this more excellent name? It is Son.
Hebrews 1:5 says:
For to which of the angels did He ever say,
“You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You”?
And again,
“I will be a Father to Him
And He shall be a Son to Me”?
Now, it is true that the angels can collectively be called the sons of God. We find this in Job 1:6. But no angel has been given this name individually.
Paul tells us when this begetting of the Son occurred in Acts 13:33:
That God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm:
“You are My Son;
Today I have begotten You.”
So we find that after He had made purification of sins, God raised Him up from the dead. Through His resurrection, Jesus has been set forth as the Son.
Romans 1:4 also says:
Who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.
So God, by raising Jesus from the dead, has set forth the truth as to His person: that He is the Son. He is the Son from all eternity.
Isaiah 9:6 says:
For a child will be born to us,
A Son will be given to us.
Because the eternal Son could not be born; He could only be given.
Now, read on in Hebrews 1:6. I told you that you were going to get a workout.
It says:
And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says,
“And let all the angels of God worship Him.”
We know God alone is to be worshiped. If He were only an angel, there should be no worship for Him. But He is not. He is the eternal Son.
And of the angels, Hebrews 1:7 says:
Who makes His angels winds,
And His ministers a flame of fire.
But of the Son, He says:
Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.
It is not enough just to love righteousness. You have to hate lawlessness too. There has to be that balance.
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of gladness above Your companions.
And You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the works of Your hands;
they will perish, but You remain;
and they all will become old like a garment,
and like a mantle You will roll them up;
like a garment they will also be changed.
But You are the same,
And Your years will not come to an end.
You are the same. Is that not encouraging to us? He is the same.
But to which of the angels has He ever said,
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Your enemies
A footstool for Your feet”?
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
That is Hebrews 1:14. So, for this reason, we need to pay much closer attention to what we have heard. Why? Because it is the Son who has spoken.
What is the message He has spoken to us? What is the message we need to give heed to? We find it in our text, in the middle of Hebrews 2:3. It speaks to us of so great a salvation.
So what is this so great a salvation? Is it that your sins have been forgiven and that you are now on your way to heaven? Yes, thank God, it does include that.
We thank God that the penalty of sin has been dealt with and that we who were sinners by nature and deed can be forgiven and placed into a right position with God. The Scripture even says that we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. That is wonderful, is it not?
But it includes much more than this. Maybe you say, “That is all I am really interested in.” But I have got to tell you, God has a lot more in mind for you.
This word salvation in the Scriptures is very extensive. It is spoken of in three tenses: the past, the present, and the future.
As far as salvation in the past tense, we have Ephesians 2:8-9. Let us read that together.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Here we see salvation spoken of in the past tense. This speaks of the salvation one receives when they first believe on the Lord—in what Scripture calls being born again.
Now, of salvation in the present tense, we have 1 Corinthians 1:18:
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Notice that phrase, “being saved”—present tense. Here we find that through the cross we can experience a present salvation from the power of sin.
We no longer need to be slaves to sin, but we can walk in newness of life.
Of salvation in the future tense, we read earlier in Hebrews 1:14:
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
This verse speaks of inheriting salvation—a salvation of the future. Note that this is a salvation that is inherited.
Now, this so great salvation also comprises the total being of man. Man is made up of spirit, soul, and body. We find this in 1 Thessalonians 5:23:
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So this so great salvation also includes the salvation of the spirit, soul, and body.
The salvation of the spirit occurs when one believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and is born again. We already alluded to that. The Holy Spirit comes, and He quickens, or makes alive, our dead spirit that was dead due to sins and transgressions, so that it is then able to communicate with God.
The salvation of the soul is to be presently taking place and consummated when we meet the Lord. It is dependent on our responding to the Lord’s call to discipleship.
Our brother shared on that recently: the option of discipleship. In God’s mind, in a sense, it is no option, because He is going to get what He is after. But the question is, when will that happen?
Our Lord said in Matthew 16:24-27:
If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.
That word life there should be translated soul. The salvation of the soul is contingent on our running the race set before us and following the Lamb wherever He goes. It is not automatic. We must be faithful to the end.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:13:
But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.
This has reference to the salvation of the soul.
Let me just say this now: the salvation of the spirit—that is, being born again—which has already occurred for the believer, is not going to be impacted by the outcome of this matter of the salvation of the soul.
The salvation of the spirit, having once occurred, can never be reversed or undone. To put it simply: once having become a child of God, always a child of God.
But the child of God’s place or position in the kingdom is contingent on this matter of the salvation of the soul. So we need to give earnest heed to what we have heard.
Lastly, this so great salvation also includes the body. Can I get an amen on that?
I am definitely at that age where I am happy about that. I kind of breezed through that when I was younger, but now—
That is going to occur when we meet the Lord. Romans 8:23 says:
We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
Now, this so great salvation in our text before us is really in reference to the salvation of the soul. In fact, this whole epistle in general has to do with this subject.
As we see in Hebrews 10:39:
But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
Some versions say “saving of the soul.” Verse 14 of chapter 1, which speaks of the angels being sent out to render service for the sake of those who inherit salvation, all has to do with this matter of the salvation of the soul.
Because, we read, it is in connection with the age to come. Hebrews 2:5-6 says:
For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.
But one has testified somewhere, saying,
“What is man, that You remember him?
Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?”
It is a good question, is it not? What is man that You remember him? Is it not wonderful that God remembers us?
There are some things in Scripture that are beautiful—that He remembers. This is one of them. There are some things in Scripture that it is good He does not remember. He says He does not remember our sins anymore. Is that not wonderful?
We know that when God created man in the beginning, He said to him to be fruitful, to rule, and to have dominion over the earth. This was God’s purpose for man from the beginning.
But we know the story. We know that man disobeyed God, and he lost the glory given to him by God. He became ruled over by the evil one instead of having dominion.
But thank God, Hebrews 2:7-10 says:
You have made Him for a little while lower than the angels;
You have crowned Him with glory and honor,
And have appointed Him over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things in subjection under His feet.
For in subjecting all things to Him, He left nothing that is not subject to Him.
But now we do not yet see all things subjected to Him.
But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the Author of their salvation through sufferings.
So we find in these verses that God’s purpose will not be thwarted. And it was not.
In fact, God knew before the foundation of the earth that His Son would be that Man He was truly looking for—He who for a little while was made lower than the angels.
But why was He made lower than the angels? Why did He have to become a man? It says so that He could taste death for everyone.
As God, He cannot die. Our Lord Jesus cannot die. But to die in the place of man, He had to be made man so that He could become the Mediator between God and man; so that He could make propitiation for the sins of the people, as it says in Hebrews 2:17; and so that He could win back the title deed of this earth, having removed it from the hand of the usurper.
So that the man who had lost his glory in the beginning could be brought back into glory, and could be made suitable to once again have the opportunity one day to have dominion with Him—the One with whom we have been made one.
Look at what it says in Hebrews 2:11-13:
For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,
saying,
“I will proclaim Your name to My brethren,
In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.”
And again,
“I will put My trust in Him.”
And again,
“Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.”
So now we are all of the same family. We share the same life. We have been brought into that fellowship that the Father and the Son had from eternity past.
What does it mean? It means now that we are joint heirs—joint heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
We love the first part of that verse, do we not?
But we do shudder at the middle part of that verse: “if indeed we suffer with Him.” Why is that?
It is because of this thing called the fear of death, referred to in Hebrews 2:15:
That He might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
We believe we have something to lose if we go through death. We believe that death to this self-life is going to end all.
But the reality is that we have everything to lose if we do not.
Thank God Jesus has rendered powerless him who had the power of death—that is, the devil. Now we share His life, which is able to go through death victoriously.
Philippians 3:10 says:
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
I want you to note the order here. It says that we know Him in the power of His resurrection first. Then it is the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
It is through His resurrection life that we are able to partake of His sufferings and be conformed to His death.
It is through His life that we can overcome this fear of death and go on into all that God is calling us to, so that the salvation of the soul can be worked out in us.
Now, returning back to our text, it says:
For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.
The King James Version translates this word as “slip”—to slip away. I am sure you have heard the expression, “It slipped my mind.”
But why do things slip our mind? Why do we find ourselves drifting at times? I think the key is in this word neglect in verse 3.
The word neglect is a translation of the Greek ameleō, which means to be unconcerned about, to care nothing for, to disregard.
So it all really comes down to this matter of the heart. Do we have a heart for the Lord?
Are we concerned with the things He is concerned with? Do we want to go on and grow up spiritually, individually and corporately?
He has paid a price and brought about this so great salvation.
If we have no concern, if we do not care, if we become neglectful, Hebrews 2:2 says:
For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty,
What will become of us who neglect this so great salvation spoken of by our Lord?
So our prayer is that we may heed this word of exhortation, this warning, and not be one of those who one day receive a just penalty due to neglecting so great a salvation.
May the Lord help us.