More Trust and Obey, if you have ears to hear...

May 5, 2013 Evening:

Title: The Resurrection Salvation Today

Old Testament Passage: Deuteronomy 10:12-22 – Circumcise your hearts

Gospel Passage: John 11:43-44 – Lazarus, come out

Sermon Text: Heb 2:3 – The danger of neglecting God and His Word of Grace

Sermon Point: We have a phenomenal salvation through Jesus. Can it be safe to treat a gift like that as nothing?

[3] how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

We have been preparing for this verse for months. We now have had ample time to consider the reliability of the Old Testament, especially on the question of Jesus Christ. We have had many occasions to explore the purpose of God revealed to us in the Scriptures. We have admitted that the Law given through Moses was very serious for that nation and that day.

But now the Son of God has come in person. He is superior to every former prophet, priest, or king, He is far above every angel. Will we neglect Him? Will we neglect the Word of His grace? Will we neglect such a great salvation?

What would it mean to neglect Jesus?

We need to consider this from the vantage point of faith and obedience.

First, we neglect our great salvation, when we will not believe in the person who saved us or believe in the word of that salvation that God has given us in the Old and New Testaments.

Let me quote at length from an event that took place in the life of Billy Graham in order to illustrate this point:

Billy was having doubts concerning the Bible. He thought he saw apparent contradictions in the Scriptures. As he puts it, "Some things I could not reconcile with my restricted concept of God. When I stood up to preach, the authoritative note so characteristic of all great preachers of the past was lacking." Billy was waging the intellectual battle of his life. He had come to Forest Home to minister to the youth and he did not realize the vital way that the Spirit was going to minister to him.

One night as he walked down the trail in the woods, where practically every rock is a prayer rock where a spiritual crisis has been fought and won, and almost every tree has been used as a back-rest for Bible study, Billy was having his duel with his doubts. His soul was caught in a spiritual cross fire. Finally he knelt down in desperation, as almost all have at one time or another during their stay at Forest Home; kneeling before his Bible he said, "Lord, many things in this Book I do not understand. But you have said, 'The just shall live by faith.' All I have received from you I have taken by faith. Here and now, by faith, I accept the Bible as your word. I take it all. I take it without reservations. Where there are things I cannot understand, I will reserve judgment until I receive more light. If this pleases you, give me the authority as I proclaim your word and through that authority, convict me of sin and turn sinners to the Saviour."

He arose from that place of prayer with the firm fact of faith strong in his soul. At his very next meeting with the young people there at the College Briefing Conference, he gave a challenge for life dedication and four hundred of them immediately responded.

"I could feel an immediate difference," said Miss Mears. "I did not know then what had happened. But there was an authority, a sureness, a fire in his spirit, that hadn't been there when he first arrived.”

How will we escape the wrath of God if we will not simply receive the Bible as true? The Bible is the Word of Christ and of His salvation which He has procured for us. Many Christians have been assailed by doubts like an external attack on our souls. It is one thing to commit your life to faith and to still have attacks of doubt that you have learned how to repent over. It is another to give the upper hand to doubt as if it was the obvious voice of reason.

The Christian faith is true.

Secondly, neglect of such a great salvation is expressed in disobedience to the revealed will of God.

If we love God, we will keep His commandments. The word of God's grace is able to build us up and to give us an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. To be sanctified is to be set apart for that which is common. We are the Lord's holy possession. In former days the Lord had one holy nation and the rest were outside of His covenant. Now He has a holy people from every nation who have come to Him by faith.

This group of people, the church, are committed to the ethical purity of our Father. We have heard the voice of our Savior in the Scriptures. He says, “Follow Me.” If we are not willing to devote ourselves to growing in the grace of obedience, we are neglecting the Word of salvation that has come to us in the Scriptures.

This is a warning. It is not an accusation, or a reason for despair. We are not of those who shrink back from God's Word, but of those who believe and who seek the obedience of faith. May the Lord be pleased to sanctify His church through the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. He is our God, and He will do it!