Sermon Tone Analysis

Heb 2:1-4 “1 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. 2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 3 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; 4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?”

Introduction:

These Hebrews were slipping from the greatness of salvation.

What they were once utterly convinced of they began to doubt and this doubt caused them to drift back to their former life.

Salvation is so great because it secures your soul to a righteous God by the precious blood of Christ

Salvation is so great because it sanctifies your life to a holy God by the unsurpassable power of the Spirit

Salvation is so great because it steadies your mind to God by the permanence of the Word

Yet when you neglect so great salvation you lose your confidence in the securing of your soul, you lose your conviction to live a life pleasing to God by the power of the Spirit, and you lose the clarity of your mind upon the Word are are instead cursed with confusion created by the world.

When you neglect so great salvation you forget how great a debtor you once where and how great a grace was required to free you from your sin.

When you neglect so great salvation you forget how great a Saviour saved you from so great misery by restoring you to so great holiness and so great happiness.

When you neglect so great salvation you forget how close to hell you were, separated by the space of a single breath and the single beat of your heart only to be given the blessed peace that comes from the blessed hope of heaven.

It is as the hymn writer wrote:

Oh to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrain’d to be!

Let that grace, now, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;

Prone to leave the God I love—

What is this neglect that Hebrews warns you of:

illus: the difference between how you treat the new car and the old car

It is sin to neglect something so great that it would become something you would be willing to abandon

The path to leaving the faith begins with neglecting so great salvation.

Some of you are considering a change, a step back or even a step away from Christ, from the things of Christ and these decisions are not the fruit of concentrated prayer nor conviction of Scripture but simply you by neglect have allowed the things that once shined bright to dull with tarnish.

You used to gush about Christ and His Church....this is so wonderful....the word, the preaching, the love and fellowship of the saints, but what has changed?

The word remains the same....the preaching continues as it did before you became acquainted with it, and the saints did not all of a sudden in a secret meeting decided to no longer love.....Has everything around you changed of is it you that has changed.....

And what has caused such a change of heart?

well according to this passage it has been neglecting so great salvation.

Your response to your personal coldness to the greatness of salvation ought to be.

Oh God “Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it, Seal it from Thy courts above.”

You neglect so great salvation by neglecting the Word of the Son, the Witness of the Saved, and the Work of the Spirit.

I. Neglect the Word of the Son

The severity of the Word delivered by the angels

Heb 2:2 “2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;”

The Hebrews had respect concerning the severity of the Word delivered to them by angels

The recompence of the Word of God delivered in their past by angels was guaranteed

For they understood that wicked Lot was warned by angels that Sodom would be destroyed it was then wiped from the earth, because God is not mocked

But greater than the severity of the word delivered by angels is....

The sureness of the Word delivered by the Son

Heb 2:3 “3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord,.....;”

How much greater than if we would neglect the word spoken by the Lord and reject His salvation......How shall we escape?

Jesus spoke of hell more than of heaven

Matt 10:28 “28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Matt 23:15 “15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”

Matt 23:33 “33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”

Jesus promised so great salvation by believing on Him

Matt 18:11 “11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.”

John 10:10 “.....I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

John 3:14-18 “14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

The slipping of the Word delivered to you

Heb 2:1 “1 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.”

They had drifted from believing the Saviour to serving self.

Just as Peter took his eyes off the Saviour and began to seek they took their eyes off of Jesus and began to drift.

Look around are you where the Word has led you or where you flesh has pulled with the cries of “I want” “It is not fair” “I have not gotten mine” “How dare they” “me, me, me, me, me, me instead of Him, Him, Him, Him, Him”

Trans: Not only did they neglect the Word of the Son but the passage also says they witness of the saved was neglected

II.

Neglect the Witness of the Saved

Heb 2:3 “.....and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;”

They were living with people who had heard the word directly from Jesus himself.......”them that heard him”

There were people who had for three and half years walked and talked with Him.

They had seen and heard and were convinced.

Part of their testimony is recorded in Acts 1:3 “3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:”

Peter says 2 Peter 1:16 “16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

John declares I John 1:1-2 “1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)”

You are not standing alone on the testimony of so great salvation but stand in solidarity with thousands of eye witnesses and millions of believers for two thousand years.

To drift away not only to change your opinion of Christ but to stand in disagreement with the great cloud of witnesses.

You must be willing to call them fools and liars....you must be willing to look around and call these others victims to a lie or collaborators to a conspiracy.

Satan seeks to devour as a roaring lion the sheep that take his eyes off the Shepherd and separates self from the sheep.

Convincing is contagious......your confidence in so great salvation helps the courage of the brother who trembles on the verge of retreat.

This is why we sing with gusto

Glory, I’m saved!

glory, I’m saved!

My sins are all pardoned, my guilt is all gone!

Glory, I’m saved!

Glory, I’m saved!

I’m saved by the blood of the Crucified One!

Trans: but lastly they neglected the work of the Spirit

III.

Neglect the Work of the Spirit

Heb 2:4 “4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?”

Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit

John 16:13-15 “13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”

The Holy bear witness to them of so great salvation

By “signs and wonders” to convince the Jews which require a sign

By “divers miracles” to convince the gentiles which rely on reason

By “gifts of the Holy Ghost” to convince the Christian of his standing.

These modern gifts are not the gifts of revelation as seen early in the church for we have the compete revelation of God in the Word of God but enablements designed to serve others.

To neglect the these gifts of the Spirit by neglecting the work of the ministry makes so great salvation in your life of little difference for the cause of Christ.

Salvation must not be so great if it is not worth so great personal efforts to be involved in its propagation through God’s commissioned institution.

So if gifted with:

Ministering then serve one another

Exhortation then encourage one another

Giving then give audaciously

Teaching then disciple someone

Mercy then go to the hurting

Prophecy then declare the word to others