Molly, the Son, has already gone to where the action happened. So do pray for the powers of this time. So we turn in our Bible to chapter two of Hebrews and verse one. Chapter two of Hebrews. Verse one. 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. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedient 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. And that's my text. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? In the book of Hebrews, you have four great things mentioned. You have a great Savior, a great salvation, a great possibility. and a great impossibility. So we'll dwell upon those four points. There are five warnings in the book of Hebrews. There's a warning against unbelief, a warning about apostasy, warning against sin willfully committed, and a warning about the neglect. And I read that in our Bible and the warning against indifference. But I want to speak on the one I read, a warning against neglecting so great our salvation. You have to begin with the greatness of the Savior, and that's the whole secret. And the book of Hebrews has to do with the Savior. That is God's Son. And so I want to say a few things about the greatness of the Savior. If you were to read the opening chapter, you would find how great this Savior is. He is co-equal with the Father. How wonderful. The Lord Jesus Christ is co-equal with the Father. As you read over in Ephesians, he thought it not robbery or forgery to be equal with God, not something to be grasped at. to hold or something to steal. He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no reputation. He took upon himself the form of a servant. He was found in passion as a man. He humbled himself. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. They are the seven steps down from heaven to earth. And then God highly exalted him. The one who humbled himself was exalted to God's right hand. And that's the Savior. How wonderful this Savior is. And that's the first thing, his equality with the Father. The next thing, co-heir with the Father. He is a co-heir. In other words, whatever is the Father is his. And here is an amazing verse. We who are saved are heirs of God and joint heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ. Can you think of anything more amazing? When you stop to think of all that Jesus Christ is and has and will have, he's heirs of all things, I, a poor sinner, saved by sovereign grace. I am going to be a co-heir. with our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's in your Bible. Co-eared and He was heir of all things. He threw the stars into their positions, into their sockets of blue, and He keeps them hurling in that orbit. He is heir of all things and He is the creator of all things. Tells you in that passage in the first opening verses of Hebrews. Yes. He is the creator of all things. All things were made by him and for him, and without him all things could not exist. How great and glorious is this Savior? He's the upholder of all things. He opposed all things by his mighty power. All things consist because of him. How tragic if the Lord Jesus were to take a hand off the controls of this universe. The one thing that the scientists trembled at when they were trying to make the atomic bomb. And I was speaking at that time with Dr. Swarzi in Augusta, the man who wrote about the atomic bomb fifteen years before it was discovered and made. And he said, Brother Lester, the thing that's puzzling then, is the chain reaction. They know now how to split it, but they don't know how to stop it. He said, if they don't know how to stop it, it means when they split it, the chain reaction would explode the universe, especially this planet on which we live. The Lord Jesus holdeth all things in his hands, and by him all things consist. They're held together. I believe the Lord Jesus has his hand on the controls of this universe, on the Bible's heaven. By him all things consist, and that's a great thing. And so he's erred of all things. all things and the heir of all things as to the Father's glory. Just think of all the glory of God and all that glory belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ. You have a remarkable verse over in Colossians. It says, For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in the earth. visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things consist that's what I've just been mentioning and we're children we're heirs a joint heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ why you would think yourself wealthy and you think yourself well except for this world if you were the heir to some mighty fortune of some great man. Friend, I am the heir of what the Lord Jesus Christ represents. Every born-again Christianist, we are heir of all things, co-heirs with him. Think of him being... and the heir of God's glory. All the glory of God in the Son of God is heir to that. He's heir to all the ages, the eons of eternity. He's an heir to Israel's coming glory. He's an heir to the glory of the nations when he shall reign over them in the great tribulation. He is heir of all things. These are his possessions. And you know, airship and sonship go together. I am a Son of God the moment I accept Jesus Christ. How wonderful that is. The night I got saved and I went upstairs and got in the chair and I used to sit and read all kinds of novels and trash and everything like that. But when I turned on the light and I just got saved a few minutes before I sat down in that chair. though I knelt at that chair. And I thought, oh, to think, all my sins are forgiven. I have everlasting life. I'll never perish. I was overwhelmed with the thought that God was now my father and I was his child. It never entered into me then that I was an heir of all that belonged to Jesus Christ. I never lose. Everything he has is mine. I'm going to share it with you. That's what it says in Romans. Heirs of God. He says, if, son, then heirs of God with our Lord Jesus. Well, it's going to get anything better than that. Now the second thing in that wonderful passage in the opening of Ephesians, he is the brightness, the outshining, the repulsions, of the invisible God, Jesus Christ is. Christ was and is all that Almighty God is. He's on equality. Christ expressed all the attributes of God when He was here on earth. In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Many years ago I read the incident. Of course, at that time being an Englishman, I was interested in the monarchy in England. You can hear my mother talk about different kings, King George V as the one reigning when I was a boy. But one of England's kings had a son, and he set his son on a trip over in Dark Africa. to visit some of those nations there. All those nations thought about is what they have heard. The great white king who lives in England, that great white monarch. And these African pythagons are up in their mind, what majesty? What glory must be this? Yes, the great white king in a distant land. And so this king sent his son. It wasn't the king, it wasn't the Prince of Wales at that time, but he sent him to that kingdom, that dark kingdom. Oh, the celebration, the expectation of that little dark nation. They tried their best to prepare for the coming of the monarch, the son of the monarch, their great white king. Finally the day came when he arrived. Oh, they were just anxious to give a glimpse of the son of the great white king that reigned over them. And some of the questions were being asked. What is the king like? Can you describe to us what the king's like? Yes, he said, I can. He's just like me. I'm his son. And the king on that soul, that great white king, he's just like me. He has eyes. He has ears. He's invisible. But I am the reflection. I am the outshining. I'm the effulgence of his glory. If you see me, you see him by faith the invisible God he has all the attributes how wonderful to think that that is so how glorious to think of the Lord Jesus Christ being the outshining of the Father's glory he's been with the Father he knows the Father and thus he can tell us all about the Father Then I think the most majestic praise you have in that opening chapter, the first few verses, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty of High. You know when you stop the thing, the most comprehensive statement in all Scripture is that very verse. By Himself purge our sins. This tells us why He came. Why did He leave the Father? Why did He come into this world? Why did He suffer, bleed, and die? Why? That He might purge our sins. all that was said about him in the Old Testament as to prophetic truth, all that was ever conjured up in the minds of the Hebrews as they thought of their coming Messiah, all that they saw him in the Gospels when they watched his miracles and heard his voice and beheld that wonderful life without sin, all of that comes to its glad and glorious conservation, he purged our sins. If he had come into the world and lived that wonderful life and died and gone back to heaven, there would be no salvation for us. It was when he was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. had perfection come into this world, and we got a glimpse of perfection, sinlessness in a man, the Son of God. We never would have been saved. And here is the key to the whole Bible when He had purged our sins. I wonder if you know the power of that precious blood. There are a few simple expressions in your Bible about that blood. You read these words, the blood of Jesus in chapter ten or nine. Then the blood of Christ, chapter nine, verse fourteen. Then you have the blood of Jesus Christ in first Peter one, two. Then you have the precious blood of Christ in first Peter one, nineteen. Then you have the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, in first John one, seven. then you have in revelation they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the land how wonderful and also he purged our sins and sat down on the right hand of the majesty of high why do you read that he sat down in the old testament there was no chair in the tabernacle for the priest to sit down. No priest, and there were priests who went in Lent, only one once a year, but there was no chair. You never read in the Old Testament about a chair in the tabernacle, for the priests constantly, continuously were on their feet working, working to light the lamp. working to put the shoulder down the table, working at the labor, and they were working at the golden altar. They were working, and once in a year, the one high priest went into the veil and stood before the throne of God and sprinkled blood thereon and on the ground where he stood. It was a constant thing. Thousands upon thousands of animals were slain on Jewish orders. Rivers and rivers of blood throughout the Old Testament, blood of animals, blood of animals, blood of animals. And there was a constant repetition, constant repetition, because of the ineffectiveness of animal blood to put away sin. But when Jesus Christ said it is finished, He yielded out the growth. His work was done. He sat down on the right hand of God. This one sacrifice sufficient to save all mankind. There'd be no need for any more sacrifice. All the sacrifice of the Old Testament did was to cover over sin. They couldn't put sin away. What the children of Israel knew in the way of fellowship with God More or less, they were buying something, like you would go to a store and charge it. And the day would come when you would grin and pay the debt. People in the Old Testament, the Jews were just charging these. In other words, animals were a slave. But when Jesus Christ came, he paid the debt. There's no need for any more sacrifice. He is the one supreme, perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice. There's no need for any more blood being shed. When he had made one sacrifice for sin forever, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. No need for any more sacrifices. Because the perfect sacrifice came. And there's no way to better perfection. His one sacrifice suffices. No need for repetition. That's why he purged our sins. That's the most important phrase in your whole Bible. That's why he came. That's why he's in heaven. That's why the gospel has been preached for nineteen hundred years. That's why we preach it here at the chapel, because it's the most important, the most potent praise in the Bible. And truth, he purged our sins in his own body on the tree. You can't buy it. You just have to receive it. He purged our sins. And you'll find also how he glorified. the Father in the Book of Revelation. I want to read to you one of the most majestic verses. And I beheld and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne. And the beasts and the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times, ten thousands and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy of the land that was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that is in them. Heard I say, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that shall upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and forever. That's the one who came and purged our sins. Nineteen hundred years ago. And if your sins were never paid for, it was then, for he'll never pay that price again. Once hath God purged our sins to the blood of Christ. When I accept Christ, God doesn't reach down and wipe the sins off my heart. So, there's no place I can go today to see my sacrifice. He's in heaven, the work's already done. Christ also had once suffered for sins. He the just, for me the unjust, that he might bring me to God. If ever my sins were suffered for, if ever my sins were paid for, if ever my sins were atoned for, it was when Jesus Christ was on the cross. And on the basis of what he did then, and on the authority of God's word, we can read now, The Spirit of God, if we believe that, will take what Jesus did on the cross for me and make it good to me. And I'm saved through the blood of the Lamb. What a wonderful Savior we have. And only so he's a revealer. He reveals not only himself, he reveals the Father. Yes, he is the revealer, the manifesting of all things. And you have that also in your Bible. You have this. In Matthew, all things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. The Son's revealing the Father. The Father's revealing the Son. And again, all things are delivered to me of my Father. and no man knows who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. How would we know what God was like if Jesus Christ hadn't come and shown us? The Word was made flesh and dwell upon us. We see what Jesus Christ is, or what God is by seeing Jesus Christ. That's a marvelous thing. He is the revealer of the Father. But the Lord said to Peter, whom do men say that I am? Oh, some say that Elijah or John the Baptist or one of the prophets. But he says, Who do you say I am? Peter says, Thou art thee Christ, the Son of the living God. The Lord Jesus has blessed thou, Simon by Jonah. Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Peter, you have believed that I am God. God's Son, God manifested in the flesh, and because you believe them, I have saved you. I reveal that blessed one unto you. Flesh and blood, other men can't save me. Flesh and blood can't work for it. Flesh and blood can't atone for it. No one can shed his blood for me, no human being, because sin is in all the blood of human beings. But says, God, Simon Peter, I reveal unto you myself. the one who suffered and bled and died upon the cross. Blessed thou, thou Simon Barzona, flesh and blood hath not revered this unto thee. I have. And so you have the wonders of the Savior. Now the second point is the greatness of this salvation. We've noticed the greatness of the Savior and we might as well close there. There's nothing to follow. but there's much to follow. The greatness of this salvation. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? A salvation that meets our need, past, present, and future. Can you tell me of a salvation as complete as that? We're saved. Our sins have been blotted out, past, Present, future. Forgiveness of sins, peace with God and everlasting life are not. Present, process, that's not a present process. Beginners of sin, peace with God and having everlasting life. That's not a present process, nor is it a future prospect, but a blessed, present reality. Of course I looked back the night I got saved, the age of nineteen. How wonderful it was when I accepted Christ and peace filled my heart and I knew my sins forgiven. That's a past experience. I don't have it any more than once. That took care of that. And of course we have the future prospect of the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. But just to think, this salvation takes the past. when I accepted Christ and thinks the future, the coming glories of Christ, and they're mine right now, both of them. That's a glorious present possession of every Christian. I'm not working to try and get my sins put away. I'm not working to try and get everlasting life. I have them when I accepted Jesus Christ. So now I know I am saved and saved forever. I am saved from the past. And what's that? I am saved from sin with its attendant sorrows, its wasted life, its guilty conscience, its judgment, remorse, regret, anguish and despair. I am saved from that. But I have been saved unto something. I've been saved unto present happiness, a useful life, and a glorious eternity. A lot of verse for that. You'll find it over in First Corinthians, but one ten. Now notice this. Who delivered us from so great a death? That's past. And just deliver. That's the present. And we trust that he will yet deliver us, spirit, soul, and body that's future. That's this wonderful salvation that God has prepared for you and me and I'm sure for the table. I wonder if you will experience and have, take and receive and enjoy this wonderful, wonderful salvation, so great a salvation. Then you come to the third point, a great possibility. What is that? Neglect. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? You notice what we read in those open verses about angels. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, left at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and just recompense of reward, if you broke those commandments, given by angels, there's no hope for you if you reject Jesus Christ. Absolutely not. If what the angels spoke of, if you disobeyed that, what are you going to do when the Lord Himself says something, and you disobey that? All you've got to do is go back to the Old Testament and the things that the angels speak of. You have a case in Numbers, and Numbers fifteen and verse thirty-five, and here you have A man, and I'll just read it to you, and the Lord said unto Moses, the man that he surely shall surely be put to death, all the congregations shall stone him with stone without the camp. And all the congregation brought the man without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died as the Lord commanded Moses. And what did this man do that had such an awful end? and they found him gathering sticks, brought him unto Moses and Aaron and unto all the congregation. Here's a man breaking a commandment that they were not to work on a Sabbath day. And he did. Simple thing, isn't it? But if he got such severe punishment for just breaking the Sabbath day and picking up sticks, That's going to be your punishment if you reject Jesus Christ. And there's another case back there of one who blaspheme. He says, And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death. And all the congregation shall certainly stone him, as rather the stranger as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall be put to death. quaring. Taking the Lord's name in vain back under that law given by angels. To take his name in vain meant death. You've taken his name in vain many times. Only God in grace kept you from being killed. God in his grace now, we're not back under law. God in his grace will save you. You've done these days. Talk about Sunday being a day of rest. Of course, the Sabbath was the old Jewish Sabbath, which was yesterday. We have the first day of the week. This is the day the Lord knows from the dead. And now we're told to remember the Lord on the first day of the week. But think of the severity of the law. but he says it were severe under law what's it going to be under grace if you reject the Lord Jesus Christ as you receive that's a solemn thought isn't it a great possibility that you may be lost because he says you reject so great a salvation you know when you think of that word neglect doesn't mean you're hostile to it or you oppose it or you hate it it just means you are inattentive to it you're not doing anything about it how true that is keep letting it slip we read at the end of verse two keep letting it slip opportunity to be saved like water running out of a bow Yes, it's keeping up, it's getting up until the last drops passed out that barrel and it's empty. All the opportunities that you've had and you keep letting it slip. Many times God has spoken to you in the meeting, you should get saved. But you are not. You keep letting it slip. make light of it. Well, that's what happened over in Matthew twenty-two when the king invited people to the marriage of his son. You read, some of them made light of it. Others, why? They said, well, if they put that off. Others said, I'm going to my farm and do my merchandise. They had material interest. That's what's your trouble this morning. You're interested in material things, not in spiritual things. And you're just letting it slip. Day after day, Sunday after Sunday, Sunday after Sunday. What's slipping away your opportunity to be saved? This is a true story about a man who was out from the mountains and he's trying to get a collection of eggs of special birds. And anyway, man, he didn't mind risking his own life. But he was able to see a ledge with a big nest. And it was a rare kind of bird that made that nest. And oh, he said, I want to get those eggs. So he found the tree up above and he tied the rope over that tree, over onto that tree and let it fall down. And it fell right in front of that nest, that ledge. He went down with this bag. He slid down right opposite the ledge. And he knew he had to start swinging. And get in there and get his foot on the ledge. Which he did. And he was so taken up with a bird's eggs. He started putting them in. And something made him let go of the rope. and the rope swang up. He was quick enough to realize. When it comes back and go out again, it won't come as near as the next time. Unfortunately, using his mind, when it came back, he jumped and he got it. He didn't get the eggs, but he saved his life. Friend, salvation may never be so near to you as it is this morning. You've been a grasshopper. for you're neglecting this so great assembly. God has provided for you. The fourth point is a great possibility you can neglect, but there's a great impossibility. Once you miss it, there's absolutely no possibility that you ever be saved at all. Your chance came and it went. Your opportunity is gone, the last one. Can you stop to think of this how solemn it is? There's a verse over in the Bible I'm going to read to you. It's in Job. Because there is wrath, beware, let thee take thee away with a stroke, then a great ransom cannot generate. How's that? Who's the great ransom? The Lord Jesus Christ. That verse says, because there is wrath, that means there is a divine certainty, wrath. It's got to come. Just as certain as you breathe, that wrath's coming. Because there is wrath, now a divine warning, beware. That's a divine warning. And what the next thing? A divine possibility he'll take me away with his stroke now that's in your bible how often that's happened i know people that sat right in this auditorium i could quote their names and i noticed them standing with their head hung as we sang the last hymn and the fight was raging within they shook it off and in essence yes it's impossible for them to be saved if they fully and final reject jesus christ as their savior a divine impossible to be delivered for the ransom is no often no longer offered to you that's what that verse says tells you very plainly what it's going to mean to those who are lost. That is, because there is wrath. Beware, lest he take thee away with his soul. Your life's in his hands. He holds your breath. He can close it any time. And you're gone. Like that man we heard about a while ago, Julius said to me, Brother Wilson, The sad thing is he's gone to hell. He was not a Christian. He blew his brains out, but he blew something else. He blew his life, and he blew his last opportunity to be saved. That can be done. There's another verse that says, None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. One man can't redeem another. For the soul, for the redemption of the soul is precious. For it live forever. What are you going to do with the Lord Jesus Christ this morning? Are you going to accept them? How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Because there is wrath, beware. Because it is God's Son who has brought before us. Because it is God's heir of all things, Jesus Christ. Because He made the world. Because He purged our sins. Because of His present majesty and glory. Because the message of the gospel is final. Because your soul is lost and needs to be saved. Because you may die in your sin. And be lost forever. Because God's spirit shall not always strive with man. Because Christ is your only, only hope. He loves you. He died for you. He rose for you. He lives to save you. He will come to glorify you only if you accept Him. Joining the church won't do it. You've got to accept this ransom. You've got to accept the one who made this ransom, who paid this price. How shall you escape? If you need that, keep putting on so great a salvation. Great indeed it is because of the Savior who purchased it. Will you take that? Will you take him this morning? I trust you'll be intelligent enough to say yes. I will. Don't be so foolish as to say I won't. Or I'll put it off. Someday it'll be the last opportunity. ever had shall we pray our father in heaven in the name of our lord jesus christ we come into thy presence we ask thy blessing upon thy word it's so solemn we dare not say such things were it not in thy book these things were uttered by our lord jesus christ and he told the truth How patient he is, how patient thou are, as generations come and go, go, as lives begin and end. Thou art waiting, for men and women lost in sin to receive Jesus Christ, to be saved, eternal. Thou are in here this morning, and though that opportunity is slipping away fast. May they come to Christ. They'll never be happy till they do. May they receive the Saviour and receive them now. We ask it in our Lord Jesus' precious name. Amen. Now we turn to three hundred and seventy-six. three hundred and seventy six out of my bondage, Solomonite. Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Into thy freedom, gladness, and light. Jesus, I come to thee. Will you come to Christ? Maybe you did in your heart while we were preaching. Will you come and come? You accepted Christ this morning. Shall we stand?