Will you turn, please, to Hebrews, the first
chapter?
I want you to notice, then, carefully, the
first two verses of Hebrews, chapter one, and
without delay, without comment, we'll begin reading with
the first verse of the second chapter.
Now, there's a reason, and I'll explain that.
The balance of the chapter, from verse three
on, exalts the Lord Jesus above angels, sets
him forth in his character and in his
office above angels.
And we recognize this, and we receive it,
but we're desirous tonight of knowing why God
has, through the writer of the book of
Hebrews, made this emphasis that Christ is above
angels.
And we'll see that in the second chapter.
God, who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days
spoken unto us by his Son, whom he
hath appointed heir of all things, by whom
also he made the world.
Therefore, and whenever you find a therefore in
the scripture, don't leave it until you find
out what it's there for.
And it's extremely important right here.
Therefore, because God has in times past spoken
unto us by the prophets, and now has
spoken unto us by his Son, therefore we
ought to give the more earnest heed to
the things which we have heard from the
Son, lest at any time we should let
them slip.
For if 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, which at
the first began to be spoken by the
Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them
that heard him?
Now the emphasis of this that I've read
is as follows.
The word of angels was steadfast.
The commandments they brought, the message they gave,
God respected, and it declares that every transgression
and every disobedience received a just recompense of
reward.
God honored the word of angels.
God attested the word of angels.
If this was true, and it was, how
much more ought we expect him to honor,
respect, and confirm the word of his Son?
If his Son is infinitely above all angels,
then God would put infinitely more concern to
seeing that the word of his Son was
respected.
Now notice also, how shall we escape, if
we neglect so great salvation?
Obviously our temptation would be here to say,
oh, salvation.
That means pardon from sin.
But you know the word salvation is an
immense word, far greater than we generally associate
with it.
If you will take that word and trace
it through the New Testament, you will find
that there are actually four tenses of salvation.
Tense in this sense I use the word.
There's the past perfect tense, the past tense,
the present tense, and the future tense.
Now let me explain.
The past perfect tense.
I have been saved from the pleasure of
sin, repentance.
The past tense.
I was saved from the penalty of sin,
justification.
I am being saved from the power of
sin, sanctification.
I shall be saved from the presence of
sin, glorification.
Now if somebody comes to you and says,
are you saved, brother, sister?
You would be quite in order to say,
how do you mean?
I have been, I was, I am being,
and I shall be.
Now let's talk about the one you're interested
in.
The word saved has been generally compressed by
us to be equivalent to forgiveness.
But the word in its use in the
Bible is far larger, far more inclusive than
just pardon.
For instance, you find Paul saying something like
this, now is our salvation nearer than when
we believe.
It sounds strange, doesn't it?
If he has saved us by his death,
how much more shall we be saved by
his life?
We find that the word saved is an
immense word, just as the word sanctification is
an immense word.
In the mind of God, our sanctification was
planned before the world began.
It was accomplished at Calvary.
It became ours potentially at the point of
repentance.
It became ours experientially as we saw ourselves
in our union with Christ, and it will
be effected throughout the endless ages of eternity.
These are vast words, immense words.
So when we read in Hebrews 1.3,
how shall we escape if we neglect so
great salvation?
No one can say, well, thank God, my
sins are pardoned, I haven't neglected salvation.
The word here used includes everything that God
in grace has done for his people through
the crosswork of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the warning given in this third verse
is not respecting pardon from past sins.
It is neglecting anything that the Lord Jesus
provided for his people, and thus deals with
that heart of indolence that says, well, I'd
like this from the Lord, but really I'm
not the least interested in any more.
Utterly cutting across this attitude that says, well,
I'd like to take certain things from the
sacrifice of Christ, but you see, really, I
just don't want to go all the way.
I'm not interested in some of these other
things.
The word in the first verse is equally
explicit.
We ought to give the more earnest heed
to the things which we have heard.
Why?
Because there's a tendency to allow precious things
to slip through our hands.
Things that are of tremendous value can be
easily lost.
I had given to my wife before we
were married an engagement ring.
One day out in Africa, she was taking
some weeds out of the zinnias.
The ground was muddy.
She was down there working.
When she came in, washed her hands, she
found the set in her ring was gone,
and she was concerned about it.
Now had she had any thought that the
mud would have been sufficiently viscous to have
drawn the stone out of the ring, she
certainly wouldn't have worn it.
And so in that little task, it was
just in passing, but she was going from
one house in the station to another, stooped
down, picked up some weeds, pulled them out,
put them away.
And when she came in, something that meant
a great deal to her was gone.
And so it could be that this is
implied in the text.
Becoming concerned about other things and interested in
tasks which are more appealing to us, truth
which was in the eternal mind and heart
of God and purchased at the tremendous price
of the blood of Christ, just slips through
our fingers and slides away with the common
cares of the day.
And so we have a warning here.
We ought to give the more earnest heed
to the things which we have heard, lest
in our preoccupation with many things, this truth,
just like sand in our hands, slip through,
slide away, and we be left with nothing
but regrets.
Again, we see it here.
How shall we escape if we neglect?
It isn't refusal.
It isn't rejection.
It isn't a matter of taking one's stand
against.
It's just the little matter of saying, well,
another day, another time.
There are other things more important, other things
more challenging, other things more demanding of my
time and thought.
And the question isn't whether or not we
will neglect it.
The question is this.
What are we going to do?
How are we going to explain it?
How are we going to face Him who
purchased these priceless privileges with His precious blood,
included them in His Word, and had them
expounded to our hearts?
And then we, in our indolence and in
our carelessness, were prepared to just neglect the
things which God purchased by the poured-out
blood of His only begotten Son.
How are we going to escape it?
This is the question.
Well, what are the consequences?
You understand, of course, that if a person
neglects repentance and neglects faith in Jesus Christ,
that they'll be forever in hell.
I am confident that in hell tonight there
are multitudes of people that intended someday to
repent.
I can't for the world believe that everyone
there made up his mind at some point
of crisis that he was determined to be
lost.
Years ago, down in Richmond, Virginia, I was
talking to a young man who said, Well,
religion is all right for the old.
Christianity and salvation is good for people when
they're on their last legs.
But anybody as young as I am doesn't
want to be saddled with a lot of
do's and don'ts and a lot of religion.
And when I get old enough to take
my social security, I'll also take my heaven
security and I'll get along with it then.
But right now, sir, don't bother me.
And so I said, Well, what else?
What about that?
Well, he said, Well, frankly, I don't even
know that then I'm too interested.
I said, All right, I'm going to draw
up a contract and you sign it.
So I took a piece of paper that
his mother handed me, and I drew up
such a contract as this.
Because I do not know that I'll live
to be old enough to take my social
security, and because I have no certainty of
tomorrow, and because I made up my mind
that I am not going to do anything
with Jesus Christ until I get to be
at least 65, I hereby relinquish now and
forever all interest in the death of Christ.
And I declare to one and sundry to
whom this paper may come that I refuse
hereafter to consider myself a candidate for salvation.
I am determined, therefore, to go to hell.
I have made up my mind that I
shall be lost if lostness there is as
the consequence of my action, because I am
simply not interested in Jesus Christ.
I said, Would you sign that?
He read it over, his face blanched, his
blood drained from it.
He said, No, I wouldn't sign that.
You think I'm a fool?
I said, Yes, I do.
I actually do.
Because you have essentially signed it by telling
us, your mother, your wife, all of us
here, that it is your intention to do
nothing with Jesus Christ until some point in
the indefinite future, and there's no reason to
suppose that when you reach 65 that you
won't postpone it again.
And so I said, You might as well
get the thing off your mind so that
when people trouble you in the future, you
can say, No, I've settled that.
One Sunday afternoon in my mother-in-law's
house, I just made up my mind that
I wasn't going to be bothered about it
anymore.
I said, I think that would be the
wiser course, rather than just somehow going to
do it in the meanwhile, case-hardening your
heart against any work of the Spirit of
God.
He said, Mister, you put it to me
in a hard way.
I don't know what I'm going to do
about it, but I assure you this, I'm
going to think more than I have in
the past.
I don't know what happened to him.
I wasn't able to follow it up.
But it's my conviction that hell is filled
with people that have said, Well, someday, someday,
someday.
And we know that it is fatal to
neglect repentance and faith.
And we have every reason to believe that
when we find that word in Thessalonians saying
that the Lord Jesus Christ shall come in
flaming fire, taking vengeance on them, that know
not God, and obey not our Lord Jesus
Christ, that it will include that company of
people that have just neglected to repent, neglected
to deal with the issue that was exposed
by the gracious love work of the Spirit
of God.
And so, to sinners, we say, you have
an option.
You must face Jesus Christ.
You have to face Him.
God has promised that every knee shall bow
to His Son.
When the Lord Jesus Christ left heaven and
took upon Himself the form of a man,
the Father said to Him, Every knee of
man shall bow to You.
And then He gave to man the option
as to when they bow.
You can either bow now in time entreated
by the Spirit of God, warned by the
Word of God, wooed by the love of
God, bow now in repentance and faith and
live, or refuse to bow now, go out
of life with your head unbowed and your
back unbent, and then to meet Jesus Christ,
not at the mercy seat, as He is
now beckoning and waiting, but to meet Him
at the great white throne, where He shall
be seated in judgment, and where it will
then be that the books are opened and
the Lamb's book of life in which the
individual's name will not be written, and then,
calling for the rocks and the mountains to
fall upon Him, He will be forced to
bow before the Lord Jesus.
Now listen, God promised that every knee would
bow to His Son.
Now they're either going to bow willingly in
repentance and faith and live, or they're going
to bow coerced and forced by the majesty
of God and the promise He made to
His Son, and then to go out into
the eternal darkness, having acknowledged under pressure what
they refused to acknowledge under grace.
This is the tragedy of neglect.
This is the crime of neglect in respect
to the matter of past sins and the
matter of the pardon and justifying love of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so we recognize that this is fatal
in its consequence, and I'm sure that there
are a few here that would challenge that
tonight.
But then there's another thing that comes along.
We somehow have gotten the idea, you know,
that whereas it is of tremendous importance that
we should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and
we should accept the salvation that He died
to provide, it isn't nearly as important to
take the other things that were included in
His death.
And so we find that there's a matter
of option there.
I think it grows out of our misuse
of the word saved.
I think we have failed to understand that
that word was never intended to be used
as we customarily use it.
First, I'll call to your attention that no
one in the Bible claimed He was saved.
No one ever said that word of Himself
in personal testimony.
Oh, Paul said, Who hath saved us and
called us.
But because the word is such an immense
word, there would be no point in the
pilgrimage that all of the word implied could
have been completed by a man living and
walking in time.
And so no one used it, being consistent
with the book itself.
The Spirit of God just didn't record such
a testimony.
Paul said, When it pleased God to reveal
His Son in me.
And there were others who testified one way
and another to the grace of God in
their life, but they didn't use that word
saved.
And I think because we have misused it,
we've misled a lot of people into thinking
that the only thing God is interested in
is sort of getting them signed up to
occupy a room in the mansion He's building
in eternity.
As though God were afraid He wouldn't have
enough people to fill up the house, and
so He's just terribly concerned about getting people
fixed up with a hell insurance policy.
And as soon as they have that, then
that's all He's really concerned about.
Now, some of them, He realizes, according to
this misconception, may be a little more enthusiastic
and a little more eager, and so He
puts some challenges for them.
And if they'll scale the hill, He's got
a little reward at the top for them.
And they may be first-class citizens and
the other second-class.
But after all, the important thing is to
get people, quote, saved, unquote.
And then if some want to go on
to the deeper life or the higher life
or the fuller life or the sanctified life,
that's up to them.
Now, brethren, I believe this is an utter
misconception.
I believe this is not defensible from the
Word of God, and I believe it is
something that every one of us ought to
do our very best to stomp out.
For instance, when John the Baptist was preaching,
he never taught in any such way at
all.
For you'll find him saying, Repent, for there's
one coming after me, who's preferred before me,
the latchet of whose shoes I'm unworthy to
lose.
He it is that baptizeth you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire.
In other words, John said to his generation,
Repent, because repentance is the means whereby the
barrier between you and God is removed, and
the end of God's grace is to bring
you into fellowship with God, not simply to
take you to heaven.
Now, here's a misconception that carries along with
what we've been discussing.
Too many people have felt that God's great
purpose in grace was to take us to
heaven when we die.
Oh, how many things can grow out of
the wrong emphasis.
God's great purpose in grace is not just
to take us to heaven when we die.
It is to save us from sin.
It is to make us like Jesus Christ.
It is to bring us into vital, living,
warm, experiential fellowship with Him now during the
days of our pilgrimage.
And then because He's already brought heaven to
us, it'll be a simple matter for Him
to take us to heaven.
But heaven was to begin in our hearts.
Now I'll say another thing that I think
you'll agree with.
And that is that if God were to
take you to heaven, send you to heaven,
rather, and wouldn't come Himself, give you a
mansion, give you a house right down on
the main street of glory, right next to
the river of life, and even give you
the franchise to take up the paving in
front, the gold paving, and sell it to
the rest of the inhabitants, God still would
have doomed you to hell if He didn't
come there.
Because I assure you that heaven cannot consist
in a mansion.
It can't consist in any of the things
which are generally associated with a heavenly abode.
The thing that makes heaven heavenly is not
the mansion, not the street of gold, not
the river of life, and not the harps
in which the angels will play.
The thing that makes heaven heavenly is the
revelation of God without restriction or inhibition or
anything to obscure Him.
And if He were to send you to
however blissful a situation you can imagine and
not come Himself, He would have simply relocated
hell and renamed it.
For that which your heart demands is not
a place and not things and not a
situation.
Oh, I can understand how some of the
slaves in other days could say, when we
get to heaven we're going to put on
our shoes and we're going to walk all
over God's heaven, and they never had shoes.
And it gets cold down there.
And they could imagine this was going to
be a tremendous improvement on their state, and
I'm sure that God took care of that
when they got there.
But if your concept of heaven is mansions
and shoes and so on, then it is
simply a kind of an idea of marrying
Mr. Dayton and moving into the department store
so that you could change your furniture every
month and everything else.
Oh, this is the most sensual concept.
This is the most materialistic concept.
What we are seeing is that heaven is
a place, but that which makes the place
heavenly is the presence of the King of
the place, the Lord of the place, the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And therefore, God's purpose in grace isn't just
to give us a ticket to a place,
but His purpose is to bring the atmosphere
and the government and the blessing of that
place to our hearts by bringing the person
who will make the place heavenly to our
hearts.
Now, if this is the case, then we'll
understand that everything that the Lord Jesus provided
is important.
Everything that was included in His cross work
was important.
And you can't sit back and say, Well,
I'm justified, I'm pardoned, I'm forgiven.
That is salvation.
And I have that.
And I have what He came to bring.
And I know He's left a few little
heights for people to scale one way or
another.
But as far as I'm concerned, I have
the important thing.
What is important?
Everything is important.
Everything He intended.
Everything He provided.
Everything that was procured by the shedding of
His blood.
And therefore, how are we going to escape
if we neglect anything that God intended to
be ours?
Yes, there ought to come into every heart
an avid hunger to have all that the
Lord Jesus died to make ours, to be
all that He intended us to be, and
to experience everything that was ours.
Let me give you an illustration.
Suppose, dear heart, you could be justified and
born again and have an attitude of complete
indifference to the things of God.
And you get home to heaven.
And the first thing the Lord does is
say, Come with me, child.
And He takes you out to the warehouse
of His grace.
He throws back the big double doors, and
there are the deep shells lying with things
which He purchased with His blood, signed, sealed,
packaged, and addressed to you in the various
stages of your pilgrimage.
Here, here was health when you were sick.
Here was victory when you were tempted.
Here was the power of the Holy Spirit
when you were entrusted with tasks.
And as He begins to just point these
things out and take the promises that He
put in His book, and says, Why didn't
you take this?
Why didn't you claim this?
Here I have made provision for you.
And then He gives you a flashback of
your life.
And you see how that you went along
broken, went along defeated, went along creeping when
you could have run, when you could have
mount up with wings as eagles, you prowled
as a worm in the dust.
And He says, See what your life was?
And then He gives you a preview of
what your life could have been.
And there is the cupboard filled with the
blessings that He provided with His own blood,
purchased for you.
And you were too indifferent and callous to
even want to claim.
How are you going to escape the heartache
and the grief that comes from realizing you
have robbed the Lord Jesus of the glory
He could have gotten out of your life
if you cared about the provisions of His
love?
Stubborn?
Hard-hearted?
Indifferent?
Preoccupied?
Satisfied with a crumb when you could have
had a loaf?
And all the time you've been dishonoring Him
because you've been less than He provided, less
than He expected.
Suppose I were to send my children to
school and they were to go with their
clothes in tatters, now I mind you they
have some overalls that have been well patched
that they use when they're climbing trees and
we insist that they put them on.
But we've also managed along the way to
scrape up a pair of shoes now and
then so that they don't need to go
with their soles flapping and their feet letting
blood on the snow in the wintertime.
But suppose my children should have forgotten completely
about the box up on the shelf which
is a new pair of shoes or the
ones in the back of the closet which
they use for school and they simply wear
these bedraggled old things to school and they
wear them all the time and there they
go with nothing but rags and tatters, neglect
the food that's put on the tables, refuse
to eat the provisions that are there, refuse
to take all that's given for them and
they go out in the community thus caricaturizing
their father because it isn't them that's being
dishonored it's their father that's being dishonored for
the father is responsible to provide for his
children and so it is that when the
children of God spurn the provisions of God's
grace and neglect that which he's given they
are actually shaming their heavenly father.
They're dishonoring him because here were provisions of
love that in his infinite wisdom he knew
his people needed in order that being strengthened
and helped and encouraged and delivered they could
walk in the presence of a skeptical world
and by their walk and their attitude and
demeanor and expression and their victory and their
joy and their peace they could honor their
father but they were unwilling to dress in
the clothes that he provided to wear the
shoes that he gave unwilling to eat the
food that he provided and they skimped along
on what they had and all the while
they dishonored him what are you going to
do about it dear child of God if
and when you get home to heaven you
discover that though you've made it by the
skin of your teeth yet every step of
the way you've dishonored the father that loves
you and whom you profess to love by
simply neglecting the provisions of his love and
the provisions of his grace can you see
the tremendous importance that's attached to the text
well you say if God wanted me to
have these things wouldn't he force them on
me oh I think not God has given
us promises and we are by these exceeding
great and precious promises made partakers of the
divine nature and you see he has told
us that we ought to give the more
earnest heed to the things which we have
heard lest at any time we should let
them slip because the God of this world
is trying to make these things seem unimportant
and the pressure of occupation is trying to
make us seem too busy with other things
to give our time here and we seem
to get along too well without some of
the things which are set forth in the
word and then we meet someone who claims
to have had these things and they don't
seem any different than we are and so
we say well what's the use what's the
value and the net result of it is
that before we know what's happened we've just
let them slide through our hands we've let
it slip away and consequently we have robbed
the Lord Jesus Christ of what he had
a right to expect from us now what
is this great salvation what does it include
what did our Lord have to say it's
this that is of tremendous concern to all
of us tonight I think we will see
it if we take the word now on
another visit I've given you this message but
I give it just in review because I
want you to see it I'd like to
have you remember now and review with me
what the Spirit of God has recorded for
us of the ministry of our Lord for
it says here with which at the first
began to be spoken by the Lord what
did the Lord have to say about this
so great salvation well if we turn to
Matthew 5 in verse 20 we will have
the beginning statement and if you would like
to record these it might be helpful to
you in the future and we'll add this
word that will be the key you'll hear
it for our Lord is speaking to a
company of people on the most important subject
in the world and this is what he
says I say unto you that except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees you shall in no case enter
into the kingdom of heaven what was their
righteousness it was the righteousness that a dedicated
mind and a consecrated intellect could produce without
the Holy Spirit they fasted they tithed they
prayed they abstained from eating meat they observed
holy days they memorized scripture they were enthusiastic
in talking about their religion and all of
these things can be done without the Holy
Ghost all of this can be done you
can be orthodox in your theology and you
can be evangelistic in your zeal you can
be missionary in your fervor you can be
devout in your practice you can fast you
can tithe you can pray you can do
all of these things and do it with
the natural energy with which previously you served
the devil and so the Lord Jesus Christ
said the righteousness which prepares you for heaven
is not that which you produce by your
energy but it is that which is produced
in you by another source entirely it is
that righteousness which is from above it is
the work of God in you and so
this is something he has to say about
salvation the second thing we find that he
is saying is in Luke the 13th chapter
verses 3 and 5 here he speaks to
this wonderful subject again our great salvation and
he tells us twice in these two verses
that except you repent you shall all likewise
perish have you repented?
or have you neglected it?
how are you going to escape?
for he has declared that except you repent
you'll perish we've defined repentance as a change
of mind of intention and purpose from pleasing
self to pleasing God for in it is
the seed of all righteousness and all holiness
as a sinner your purpose was to please
yourself and your direction was aimed that way
then you came to the place of repentance
you made a right about face and a
complete turn and from that moment on your
intention was to please God and your purpose
was to glorify God and the end of
your being was his satisfaction not your being
satisfied with him but his being satisfied with
you now have you repented?
except you'll repent you'll perish you see the
fatality of neglect here you can see how
important it is that you shouldn't overlook this
well come with me then to Matthew chapter
18 in verse 3 for here we find
our Lord speaking about something else he's been
out walking with his disciples and they've been
arguing as to which one of them would
be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven
our Lord called a little child set the
child on his knee and turned to his
disciples and said except you be converted and
become as little children ye shall not enter
into the kingdom of heaven the word converted
means turned again and our Lord is saying
that though they've repented though they've received him
the evidence of the genuineness of his work
in their heart that is that every time
their mind is in conflict with his mind
his mind prevails and thus you'll find it
stated in Romans 12 1 and 2 verse
2 especially we are transformed by the renewing
of our minds and there it is that
many of the things you've carried into this
life of forgiveness and pardon were not ordained
of him nor were they according to his
will and so at every step of the
pilgrimage you're going to find that some attitude
is in conflict with what he prescribes the
evidence of the genuineness of his work is
that every time you find that your way
is in conflict with his way his way
prevails and you're turned again perhaps you're going
this way he's allowed you to go this
way but all of a sudden the spirit
of God stops you and says you can't
go that way the evidence that you're a
child of his is that you follow him
that you turn again and go his way
a constant attitude of rectification it's like driving
you have to decide which town you're going
to suppose you were leaving today for my
town back in the east in New York
City first thing you've got to head right
don't go west it's such a long way
around but even after you've decided to go
east don't just lock your wheels and step
on the gas you'll be in trouble because
after you've decided to go to New York
and you've headed east you've got to make
many minute corrections because as your car is
riding along the road there's a slant on
the road and you have to correct against
this slant and so there's a bet in
your disposition and a bet in your nature
and your purpose to please God but the
evidence of the genuineness of his work is
that whenever the car begins to drift away
from his will you bring it back again
you keep bringing it back again because your
purpose is to please him and you're not
going to allow the drift to pull you
into the ditch you see except you be
converted and become as a little child it's
the attitude of constant correction to the will
of God and continuous concern that you please
him not simply that some place in the
back in the past you made a transaction
and signed a decision card but today the
attitude of your heart is I want to
please God and if he shows you that
some action some attitude something you're doing doesn't
please him you don't rest in the past
you aren't simply resting there you're saying Lord
I want to please you today as much
as that day back there when I first
met you and you have a continuous attitude
toward his will then we come to something
else if we turn please to John the
fifth the sixth chapter we'll find a statement
let's turn first to John the third chapter
and we'll see there that our Lord had
something to say about this great salvation we'll
hear three times in as many verses he
says something about it in verse three he
says except a man be born again he
cannot see the kingdom of God in verse
five he says except a man be born
of water in the spirit he cannot enter
the kingdom of heaven and in verse seven
he says you must be born again and
so our Lord Jesus has made it expressly
clear that that which prepares us for salvation
is not something that we've done toward God
but something that God has done toward us
oh there's something you must do toward God
you must repent and you must believe but
the evidence of the genuineness of your repentance
and your faith isn't that you can remember
when you repented and when you believed but
the evidence of the genuineness of your repentance
and your faith is that when you repented
and believed God regenerated you by the Holy
Ghost and gave you the witness of the
spirit that you'd passed from death to life
and you knew you'd been born again now
this is a point of tremendous tremendous significance
how are we going to escape if we
neglect it you can't get by he said
except a man be born again except a
man be born of the spirit except you
must be born again and you can see
how fatal it is to neglect at this
point and so it's of tremendous importance that
you should make absolutely sure that you've repented
that you're righteous the righteousness is not the
righteousness produced by men by effort but it's
the righteousness that's produced by God through the
sovereign and the supernatural work of the Holy
Spirit oh it's a tremendous thing this salvation
but then we come on to something else
if you'll go to John the sixth chapter
in the fifty third verse here he's talking
to a company of people that were going
to make him king and they were going
to be his disciples and we find that
he has they've asked him however for a
certification to do a miracle predict it have
it come to pass to prove that he
was who they thought he was who he
said he was and now Lord Jesus said
oh no I can't do that you see
I am the bread of life I am
the living bread which came down from heaven
if any man eat of this bread he
shall live forever and the bread that I
will give is my flesh which I will
give for the life of the world the
Jews therefore strove among themselves saying how can
this man give us his flesh to eat
then Jesus answered and said unto them verily
verily I say unto you except you eat
the flesh of the son of man and
drink his blood you have no life in
you whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my
blood hath eternal life and I will raise
him up at the last day you see
salvation is not in a plan salvation is
not in scripture verses salvation is not in
ordinances nor a scheme of theology salvation is
not in decision salvation is not in the
pronouncement of an evangelist or a pastor or
a teacher salvation is a person this is
the cardinal truth of our faith salvation isn't
from a person only it is but salvation
is a person David saw this in Psalm
27 Jehovah is my light and my salvation
again we have it he that hath the
son hath life life is in the son
he that hath not the son shall not
see life but the wrath of God abideth
upon him you understand therefore that salvation is
Christ he is our light he is our
salvation he didn't die to send it he
died to become it and he isn't just
savior because he's in heaven it has to
be in you now Paul wrote to the
church at Corinth in the second letter the
thirteenth chapter in the fifth verse and said
examine yourselves whether you be in the faith
prove your own selves know you not your
own selves how that Christ be in you
except you be reprobate and so it isn't
just Christ on the cross or Christ in
the tomb or Christ raised from the dead
on the throne but it is Christ in
us in you the hope of glory and
so he said that to have life was
to have him become so united with you
that it was as though you've eaten his
flesh and drunk his blood he has become
the life of your life bone of your
palm he's joined himself to you and you've
received him because salvation isn't just from him
salvation is in him and when he is
in you then he is your life now
this is the testimony of the word and
how important it is therefore that you shouldn't
miss heaven by 18 inches multitudes of people
are going to do that our evangelical churches
are filled with people that are going to
miss heaven by 18 inches because all their
salvation is up here and it never got
down here where Christ became their life they
have the verse but they don't have him
years ago down in Tennessee in a service
on a Sunday morning invitation was given a
man came forward a personal worker with a
card and a snapboard and he said I
went to see him said what did you
come for I came to be saved he
said what do you want to be saved
from he said I didn't know there was
a choice sin and hell I guess he
said alright are you a sinner he said
yes or I wouldn't be here he said
the personal worker opened his bible and said
read that the man read he that hath
the son of light hath life he that
hath not the son shall not see life
oh do you believe it yes I believe
it and so he said what's your name
what's your address telephone number he said now
do you want to be baptized he said
well I don't know I guess so I
suppose he said any questions yes there is
a question I just read that verse he
that hath the son of light and I
told you I believe it and that's true
but there's just one question how do you
get the son well he said don't worry
about that that isn't important we'll take care
of that in one of the Sunday school
classes the important thing for you to know
is now that you believe it and so
they signed his name to the card and
ten minutes later he was being baptized and
the personal worker came to a pastor friend
of mine and said you know I've been
in a little bit of trouble about that
that fellow believed that verse all right but
I've just been thinking maybe we ought to
do a little more than we do because
it isn't just to have the verse that
says he that hath the son of light
because life isn't in the verse life is
in the son have I been wrong about
that and my pastor friend said oh my
dear brother and multitudes of people in that
day are going to hear him say away
with you I never knew you because they'd
said Lord, Lord but they'd never come to
the place where they truly repented and truly
received him and he had become the flesh
of their flesh and bone of their bone
and life of their life and all they
had was the word and all they had
was the verse and salvation isn't a verse
salvation is a person and that person in
vital relationship with you can you see how
important it is that we don't neglect that
we should be among that number in that
day that will hear him say away with
you I never knew you they knew him
they knew the right things to say the
right places to go the right things to
do but he'd never come in and salvation
isn't a person and you're agreed with this
and we can understand that but we don't
stop there turn to John chapter 12 John
chapter 12 in verse 24 our Lord Jesus
Christ is continuing to minister to us and
so it's in this particular occasion in verse
23 a group of previously a group of
Greeks had come and said sir we would
see Jesus and Jesus answered them saying the
hour has come that the son of man
should be glorified verily verily I say unto
you except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die it abideth alone but
if it die it bringeth forth much fruit
he that loveth his life shall lose it
but he that hateth his life in this
world shall keep it unto life eternal if
any man serve him he let him follow
me and where I am there shall also
my servant be if any man serve me
him will my father honor and so great
salvation this great salvation doesn't only include salvation
from the penalty of sin it doesn't only
include Christ our life that he has delivered
us from death by becoming our life but
he said if any man serve me let
him follow me and where I am there
also shall my servant be where did the
Lord Jesus go for us where did the
Lord Jesus go for us he went to
the cross he went there in our place
and in our stead he was there crucified
for us as a corn of wheat he
was prepared to fall into the ground and
die knowing that if he did not he
would abide alone but were he to die
as the father had sent him into the
world for that hour and that purpose he
would bring forth much fruit but he said
it isn't just a cross for me four
times in the ministry of our Lord he
mentioned the word cross in Matthew in Matthew
10 he said take up your cross and
follow me in Mark 10 he said to
the rich young ruler first tell all you
have give it to the poor take up
your cross and come follow me and in
Matthew 16 he said if any man would
follow me let him take up his cross
and come follow me and in Luke 14
he said except a man if any man
take up not his cross and come follow
me he cannot be my disciple the only
four times the Lord Jesus mentioned the word
cross as such was in reference to his
disciples at the very outset he said this
is the condition for coming to me it
is as though you were to say here
at Bethany Fellowship the only possible way that
anyone can become a member of Bethany Fellowship
is to go to the gallows have the
rope put around your neck the trap door
sprung and your life utterly taken away from
you and when they've taken you down from
the gallows slip the rope off your neck
and you're cold to death then you're a
candidate for Bethany Fellowship it was as though
we were to say in the gospel tabernacle
in New York City that no one can
become a member of that church until they've
gone up to Sing Sing they've gone into
that little room that's set aside for criminals
under capital punishment they've had the electrode put
around the forehead around the hands and the
feet and the power has been turned on
and they've been electrocuted and then it is
that when they've been taken out of that
room and laid out and stretched their candidate
for membership it was just this shocking when
the Lord Jesus Christ used these words in
this context his people couldn't understand it did
you know what he said if any man
take not up his cross and come follow
me he cannot be my disciple and so
we find that this great salvation does not
only include salvation from sin salvation from hell
but it also includes salvation from the world
in which we've lived that's governed us and
controlled us whose attitudes whose maxims whose rewards
we've sought and whose interests we've served it
not only includes salvation from the world but
includes salvation from the flesh from our own
personality and nature traits and interests it includes
salvation from those habits and attitudes that we've
developed and acquired but it not only includes
salvation from the world and the flesh but
it also includes salvation from the devil we
were his bond slaves we'd given him control
of our life it had been done for
us by the father of the race but
it had been confirmed by us by our
own choice at the age of accountability and
we were then the children of the devil
his father he was our father we were
his children his nature we exhibited and his
acts we performed and his government we accepted
but we come to the Lord Jesus Christ
and his purpose is not only to save
us from hell and save us from sin
but it's to save us from the world
and its government and its interests and its
control it's to save us from the flesh
with its pull and its hold and its
ensnaring and meshing pulls around us and it's
to save us from the devil with all
of his power and all of his cunning
and all of his craftiness the Lord Jesus
died therefore to set his people free for
whom the son makes free is free indeed
free from the fear of death free from
the fear of hell but free from the
power of the world free from the power
of the flesh and free from the power
of the devil this was all part of
his great salvation now can you see the
folly of a person saying well I don't
want to go to hell when I die
but I'm quite content to be in bondage
to the world to its aims to its
goals to its interests to its rewards and
to engage in its service for can you
see how silly it is how foolish how
ridiculous it is for a person to say
I don't want to go to hell I
want to go to heaven but I'm quite
content to go on being in bondage to
my own personality I've got a mean ugly
disposition you see oh I lose my temper
I get terribly mad but I'm quite content
to go on shaming Christ and caricaturizing Christ
you see because really all I wanted out
of Christ was to escape from hell can't
you see what a total contradiction this is
can't you see how foolish it is for
a person to say well you see I'm
quite willing to go on doing the business
of the devil I'm willing to be a
fifth columnist for hell because I've already been
secured against the burning I won't have to
go to hell when I die and so
I don't care if I do serve the
devil a little bit it's alright can't you
see what a total contradiction of terms this
is how unthinkable it is and no wonder
the writer of Hebrews says how can we
escape if we neglect so great salvation when
God's salvation intended deliverance not only from the
penalty of our sin and from the certainty
of hell but it included deliverance from the
power of the law its grip and its
hold upon us it included deliverance from the
power of the flesh the personality the nature
the traits of the individual it included deliverance
from the power and control of Satan himself
and the demons of darkness and for a
person to say well I'm all all I
really want from Christ is just to go
to heaven anyway why it's unthinkable it's inconceivable
it can't be it just can't be that
anyone can spurn the grace of God and
the mercy of God and the love of
God manifest in the death of his son
to set his people free and go on
in bondage when he's already paid the price
of their deliverance they tell about a man
out in the western part of Mississippi in
a little rural town way back up the
river that had a large plantation and many
many slaves somebody came around to the slaves
and said the emancipation proclamation's been signed they
went to the owner and says now what
does that mean he says that means I
can't sell you to anybody else that means
that from now on you just I just
can't sell you it's utterly impossible for me
to sell you the government said I can't
sell you and so well what does that
mean that means you just go right ahead
and work here and you don't need to
be the least bit afraid you just work
for me and go right on working for
me and I'll never sell you I'll never
sell you you can stay right here so
one year went on two years went on
they kept living in the slave quarters they
kept going to the field eating the food
taking the lash of the overseer just going
right on and they said isn't it wonderful
to be emancipated we don't have to be
so fear about being sold our families won't
be broken up and children you can live
right here with your father and your and
your mommy all your life we go right
on working for the master here and so
they go right out into the field and
grovel and serve and they were talking about
being emancipated because they couldn't be sold to
anybody else then someone came along and said
what are you doing here well we we
don't need to be afraid about being sold
anymore you don't understand what emancipation is you
don't need to serve that man anymore he
doesn't own you he not only can't sell
you but he can't work you you don't
have to do his dirty bidding anymore you
can leave here pack your things and go
down the road and go anywhere you want
to go well he never told us that
that's what it meant to be emancipated and
so we've spent four years working here when
we didn't have to oh listen I know
children of God that have been four years
doing the bidding of the world and longer
than that doing the bidding of the flesh
and longer than that being hounded and whipped
by the devil and they never heard that
Jesus Christ died to set them free but
oh to think that when they've heard they'll
go right on in bondage that's unthinkable that's
unthinkable and so if I speak to you
and you've had bondage to the world it's
been gripping and pulling the Lord Jesus died
to set you free he carried you with
him to the cross so that as you
went down in death the world would have
to relinquish its hold it couldn't follow you
into death he carried you with him to
the cross so that as you went with
him into death the flesh couldn't hold you
and govern you anymore he carried you with
him so that the devil couldn't hold you
anymore and then he brought you up on
the other side of the grave with him
in newness of life so that you could
walk and flee for he that is dead
is freed from sin can you go on
neglecting so great salvation you can't you've got
to admit your bondage admit your need admit
that you've been serving when you didn't have
to serve and come and throw yourself at
his feet and gladly take from his nail
pierced hand the deliverance that he purchased with
his blood because you've heard about it you've
heard about it and you know that he
died to set you free set you free
years ago an Englishman had gone out to
California made his fortune in the gold fields
he wanted to go back and live with
his own people so he sent his money
by check around back to England and he
came overland on the Santa Fe trail to
Kansas City and down to Missouri and then
the Mississippi and ended up in New Orleans
where he was going to take ship to
New York and from there to England and
as a tourist in New Orleans he did
as most tourists do he went down to
the slave market only then in the early
1850s there were still slaves being sold and
as he went into the market he saw
a lot of men gathered there and one
party was put on a young Negress very
beautiful for her race and he heard the
men as they were speaking about her he
saw two evil looking men bidding for her
quite heatedly and then he heard them say
what they would do with her and his
heart just revolted against the whole swinish thing
and finally when they were bidding and the
bidding prices were getting very high and smaller
he just couldn't stand it and so he
beckoned to the auctioneer and he said a
figure which was exactly twice the last bid
utterly beyond anything that had ever been paid
for a slave in that market before he
said have you got the money and he
came up and he said yeah he got
the money and so the bill of sale
was made out and he went over to
the block to take the woman that he
had purchased and as she came down one
step and stood just about level with his
eyes she had made a mouth full of
spittle and she spat right full in his
face and hissed through her clenched teeth I
hate you he said nothing to the back
of his hand he wiped the spittle away
took her by the hand walked down the
street across this intersection through the mud down
that street till he came to a little
office building she couldn't read didn't know what
it was he went to the desk began
to speak the man behind the desk began
to protest he said I insist it's the
law I insist and finally he came back
paid some money and got a paper he
walked over to the woman that was like
a beast ready to spring on him he
handed the paper out and he said here
here are your manumission papers you're free she
still hissed I hate you didn't you understand
I said here are your manumission papers you're
free she said no you paid twice as
much for me as they've ever paid for
anybody on that block are you giving me
these I don't believe said yes these are
your manumission papers and he put them in
her hand and she said stop mister do
you mean to say that you bought me
to set me free said yes that's why
I bought you to set you free tears
came up into eyes that hadn't known tears
for a long time the gist spilled over
her face softened and then she slipped down
on her hands and knees and she reached
down and put her hands around those rough
miners boots and then laid her cheek down
on the toe of one of them and
through her tears she sobbed oh you bought
me to set me free you bought me
to set me free you paid more than
has ever been paid before just to set
me free and then through her tears she
looked up and said oh sir all i
want in life is to be your slave
you bought me the lord jesus christ bought
you to set you free and when you
understand that then it's the joy of your
life to come and stand against the door
of grace and let it bore through the
ear of your heart that you can be
a virgin born slave forever he bought you
to set you free not only from hell
but from the world and the flesh and
the devil he bought you oh come to
him kiss his nail pierced feet and take
from his hand that great salvation that he
purchased with his blood and remember he bought
you to set you free