The Messenger of the Lord - 3

Please do open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter two. So on Sunday morning we had Jesus, the divine son. Yesterday evening we had Jesus, the exalted son, and now we see Jesus as the messenger of God.

Hebrews chapter two, beginning with verse one. Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him? God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his will.

All of that is a question, how shall we escape if? For lunch today, Hunter Strength took Carol and me out and he was showing us the picture of something. I can't remember what it was, but while I was holding his phone, a call came in. And so I just turned it around and I said, you're getting a call. He said, it's spam. Deleted it, turns back around and shows me the rest of it.

Says he's plagued, he's plagued with spam. I never had a cell phone until about four years ago. I was I think the last person on the planet without one and it was great and I still would probably be without one if it were not for the fact that I'm a pastor and there are times when people need to get in touch with me and I would be otherwise unreachable. And so I have a cell phone now, but I don't use it very much. I almost never get on the internet and I don't usually leave it turned on and so I'll just see that someone has called or see that someone has left me a text message.

But I'm sure that all of you have some experience with cell phones that you can look and you say, oh, I got a message from so and so. I'm not exactly sure who the living preachers are that Hunter admires, but let's just say that he really admires John MacArthur. Let's say it was Greg Barkman. So I'm looking at a picture and I say, oh, Pastor Barkman's trying to call you. Oh, let me get that. So it's someone important.

I need to answer that. You can see sometimes in emails that there will also be a subject matter and you think, oh, I'm really interested in that. So this is from someone that is important and oh, this is a very interesting subject upon which they have written me this email. So all of that adds weight to the message that has been sent to you. Well, those are two of the factors that add weight to the message that Jesus brings to us. The subject matter is that it is a, it is a, it's about salvation.

So it's an important weighty subject. It is from God. It is delivered by Jesus. And so there are, and it's better than the message that was delivered by angels. That is one of the minor points in our mind, but that is one of the major points in the argument that is being carried on in these two chapters, which as I told you is a sustained comparison contrast between the new covenant and the old covenant. And these first two chapters are taken up almost entirely with showing how that the new covenant is better than the old covenant because the messenger is better than the angels or the message is better than the message that was delivered by the angels who are identified as the mediaries through whom God delivered the old covenant. So we saw that from Galatians chapter three and also from Stephen's speech in Acts chapter seven that the old covenant was delivered through the mediation of angels.

And so that's probably the main reason why we have this sustained comparison contrast in which angels feature so prominently. And so one of the reasons that this message is such an important message and deserves our concentrated attention is because it's more important than the message that was delivered by the angels. So the first point of this sermon is going to be the message that Jesus delivers and these four reasons that I have just been over as to why we should pay special attention. The second point will be to say, but this passage reveals to us a subtle danger and it's described two ways. We must be careful that we don't drift away. And then later on in this text it is said, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

So drifting away and neglecting are both activities that just require inattention, but they have dire consequences and so there's a warning against a serious danger that we face. Then thirdly, there is a dire consequence for ignoring this message and that is you don't get saved. So we will not escape. How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?

And there will be an application under that point for both the converted and for the unconverted. Not escaping. What is it that the converted people will not escape?

What is it the unconverted people will not escape? And then finally, I think the main verb in this whole passage is the safeguard against drifting away. We must pay more careful attention or we must give them more earnest heed. And so we'll think about what does it look like when you are paying careful attention or when you are giving earnest heed to this message that has been brought to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. Numerous times in his ministry and the words that we have recorded that our Lord spoke, he says, the words that I'm speaking are not my own.

They come from him who sent me. And so we may not think of Jesus as primarily being a messenger from heaven, but it was a vocation that Jesus himself felt very deeply and that he executed with great assiduity and careful attention to say what I have spoken to you is exactly what the Father has told me to say. I have not spoken of my own accord, but what the Father has told me to say, that's what I have said to you. And as I mentioned to you yesterday morning, this is one of the things that serves as an anchor for my soul is that based on what I know about Jesus' character and about Jesus' ministry, I trust him. And so I trust that he is bringing the right message from heaven and that if I obey what Jesus says and what Jesus has taught, then I am going to be right with God and I'm going to go to heaven when I die.

I will be saved. And so that leads me into this first point. Why is this such an important message? And the first reason is because it is a message of salvation.

You see that again? We need to pay careful attention. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

So this is the greatest need that we have. Salvation is more important than health. Salvation is more important than financial security.

Salvation is more important than occupying a position of honor. Salvation is more important than any kind of physical pleasure that we might enjoy. But we rarely feel the point, the prick, the urgency of salvation. Well, we don't feel it until the Holy Spirit reveals it to us.

We have amazing capacity to be distracted and to be engaged in trivialities and superficialities that all appear to be screaming nonsense the moment that our heart stops beating. And sometimes for a few minutes before people are granted a site of how they have wasted their life on trivialities and superficialities and neglected to tend to their everlasting soul. And pray God that it's not too late for you or someone that you love to hear Jesus pleading earnestly. God does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul. What will you give in exchange for your soul? There's nothing more important than salvation. If a man were to come bursting in the back doors and say, good news, we've all been saved. We'd look around and think somebody probably needs to usher him out.

What's he talking about? But what would have been the reaction a few days ago if someone had burst into a home that was being shaken from its foundation by the waters, the flood waters, and someone comes bursting in and says, we've been saved. There's a helicopter on the roof. No one would have thought he was a madman. People would have thought, oh, praise God. Praise God we've been saved. Somebody has sent a savior for us, a helicopter to get us out of this mess.

Well, Jesus comes with all the urgency of someone bursting into a building that is being shaken from its foundations by a flood or bursting into a building that is being consumed by fire and saying, good news, there's a way of salvation that has been provided. And I have done it. I have provided for you. Come climb on my back.

I'll take you out of here. It's a weighty message because it is a message of salvation. It is a weighty message because it is a message that has come from God. And in verse, I can't see the little numbers in this Bible that Hunter has lent to me, but so just kind of look along that it first of all was spoken by the Lord. So about midway through that passage, this is a message it has great weight because it was spoken by the Lord.

This is why I asked Pastor Barkman to read that passage of scripture for the scripture reading that he read a few minutes ago. Man makes a vineyard. He digs a wine press. He builds a tower and then he lends it out to vine dressers who will tend it and under the understanding one of these days I expect to receive some of the benefits of the harvest of the grapes that are grown here. And so when the time for harvest comes, he sends servants and these wicked vine dressers abuse the servants. They stone them and kill them and mistreat them.

And this goes on for a while and then the owner of the vineyard says, I'll send my son. Maybe they'll listen to him. Surely they will listen to him. And of course that illustrates the history of revelation that God throughout history sent prophets and priests and holy men to Israel and some of them they stoned and some of them they mistreated. And then God says, I'll send my son.

Surely they will listen to him. And so he sends Jesus Christ and the vine dressers say, oh, this is the heir. Let's kill him. And then the vineyard will be ours. And so they kill him and they throw him out. And then Jesus asks, what's going to happen to these vine dressers? And they answer, well, the man who owes the vineyard is going to come and he's going to kick them out. He's going to give the vineyard to others who will keep by the agreement, who will give him some of the harvest.

And I can just imagine that there was a pretty good pause after that. And Jesus looks around at them. Have you never read the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. God has done this and it is marvelous in our sight. He's the chief cornerstone. He's the, he's the son that got killed and got cast out.

And, uh, the, the vineyard that had been entrusted to Israel was taken away from them and has been given to people who will bring forth the fruits of it. But Jesus is the chief cornerstone. But the message that he brings from his father is all the more weighty because this is the son. It's weighty then because it's a message of salvation because it was spoken by the Lord. But notice in verse four, God also bore witness to it. So Jesus, the Lord began to faithfully, clearly proclaim this message of salvation and God confirmed it with signs and wonders with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. Have you ever noticed that there are really only three major epics of miracles in the Bible? There is an epic of miracles around the time of Moses. There is an epic plethora of miracles at the time of Elijah and Elisha. And then the third is at the time of Jesus and his apostles.

The significance of that is that those are three times when God is sending new revelation. So through Moses sending a lot of new revelation. How do we know that you are speaking from God? And then God confirms it with all of these miracles.

And then Elijah and Elisha commencing the period of the prophets. How do we know that you're speaking from God? They're all these miracles. And then Jesus comes and he's saying new things. The apostles are saying new things.

New revelation from God is coming. How do we know that you are from God? And so Jesus and his disciples and the people in those early days were able to do all of these wonderful miracles. And I think that that implicitly says that we should not expect life to constantly be a flow of miracles on that level. I think that God still performs miracles. I think that God still sends signs and wonders and various miracles and so on. But I don't think that we should expect that heavy outpouring, that heavy downpour of miracles to continue because they were specifically for the purpose of showing that the word that was being preached through Moses, through the prophets and through Jesus and his apostles was indeed a word that came from God.

And I think that sometimes the words that are used to describe these miracles indicate that. So for example, look here in verse four it says, God also bearing witness with signs. Well you know what a sign is? A sign is not an end in itself.

A sign is something that points somewhere else. So you know on the way here I might see a sign that says 20 miles to Burlington. But when I get to Burlington I don't see signs all the time that say you're in Burlington.

You're in Burlington. I was riding my bicycle down the road here whichever direction it was this morning and I saw a sign. It was on the right side of the road but it was pointing to a road on the left side and it just said dead end.

I thought that's kind of an unusual thing. Usually when you turn onto the road it says dead end but here's a road over here. Hey, you want to get on a dead end? It's that way.

And I thought we could go a few feet further. There's no road and there could be a sign there that says no road over there. So signs are for telling you what lies ahead or once you get there, once the word of God has been sufficiently attested, there are other ways that God shows that his word is trustworthy and it really has come from him. The fact that there are a room full of people in here who used to be non-believers but are now believers is a pretty powerful testimony. The way that the word of God changes lives is as powerful a testimony as the miracles that were performed at the commencement of the message that came from Moses through Elijah and Elisha and through Jesus and his apostles.

Wonders are supposed to get your attention. Miracles are things that can't be explained naturally and God used signs and wonders and miracles and also various gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will to confirm that this is indeed a message that has come from him. So this is a very important message. It concerns something that is of the utmost importance to us, our salvation. It was first of all announced by the Lord. It was confirmed by those who heard him and by God himself. I skipped over the part that says confirmed by those who heard him but the apostles were men who were truthful. They were men who were willing to suffer for what they were saying and that in itself does not prove that something is true.

There are proponents of false religions who are willing to suffer for what they say is true but they only suffer for it if they think it is true. And so the apostles if they knew that they had hidden the body of Jesus or that there was something else that would disqualify him for being the Messiah, they're not going to die for it. So it was confirmed by those who heard him and then God also confirmed it and then there is this last thing that the importance of it is shown that it is a more important message than that which was delivered by the angels.

Now this probably confirms something that you have always suspected your entire life but have been afraid to say. Namely, not all parts of the Bible are equally important. They're all the Word of God but there are some parts that deserve more careful attention. The message of salvation that has come through Jesus and the apostles and has been confirmed by God, we should pay more earnest attention to that and then it's contrasted with after all the message that came through angels was so important and in fact every violation and disobedience, look at verse two, for if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, we would say punishment because we're talking about transgressions and disobedience.

If they got punished when they disobeyed the message that came from angels, then how much more are we going to be punished if we disobey the message that has come to us from the Lord himself and has been confirmed and emphasized and highlighted in all the ways that we have seen these five ways? And so there is a dreadful consequence if we do not pay attention to this message but before we see the dreadful confidence, let's look at the subtle danger that confronts us in relationship to this message. It says there in verse one, therefore we must give them more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away and then later on it says neglect and as I told you in the introduction, these are both non-activities. Neglect is not doing something, it's failing to do something. Drifting away doesn't happen when you're paddling, it happens when you're not paddling. I remember one time a friend of mine and I were on a canoe trip that involved us sleeping out for two or three nights and we had pitched our tent and gone to sleep on a sandbar late one night and early the next morning we awakened to the sound of pots and pans tinkling outside our tent. The river had risen during the night and all of our camping equipment was drifting away.

We weren't paying attention to it, no one expects you to pay attention to it when you're sleeping but you're not supposed to sleep all the time and if you sleep all the time or if you don't pay attention the way that you should then there's just the danger that you'll drift away. When people come to me and they are expressing sadness, prolonged sadness, maybe they're in depression or prolonged doubts about their faith, almost always one of the first questions that I will ask them is tell me what your devotional life looks like. Well I'm praying a good bit but I really don't read the Bible very much. So a few weeks ago I was having a discussion with someone and I had recommended this person that she look carefully at what it says in Proverbs chapter two verses one through six because she was expressing her doubts about Christianity and her interest in Christianity and I said take a look at Proverbs two one through six. Turn there. Turn to Proverbs chapter two verses one through six.

Here's what it says. So you know what an if then clause is. If this then that, that if clause, the official name for that is a protasis, P-R-O-T-A-S-I-S is a protasis and then the then clause is called an apodosis, A-P-U and if so if this.

The pro comes first and the apodosis comes later. So I had said to this person notice that there are a series of apodices. There are a series of protoses rather. I meant to say protoses, things that say if. If this, if this and then it finally gets to the apodosis which I think is what you're after.

Let's see what it says. My son if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. Notice if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding. If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, all that's that, all that's the protoses.

Now here comes the apodosis. Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. So I had sent this to her several days before our interview. I said did you read that passage?

I don't remember if she said yes or no but I think it was no. I said well because if you had read it then this is what you would have found. If you receive my words and treasure my commands with you. Now do you ever memorize scripture Lasker? Well I tried that years ago and it didn't work for me. I said you know when the Holy Spirit comes to bake a cake at your house, he uses the ingredients that you've got stored in your cupboard and the devil does the same thing and you need to have good stuff stored up. You need to treasure up good things in your heart. You ever do that?

No it doesn't work for me. Well that's what it says here if, if, if and then you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. So are you listening? Are you listening for wisdom? Are you earnestly applying your heart to see the underlying principles that make the word of God make sense for understanding? Are you praying about it? Are you crying out for discernment? Are you lifting up your voice for understanding? You can feel the desperation of this person. He's not just lazily breathing out some kind of prayer before he goes to bed at night. He's crying out.

He's lifting up his voice. Are you seeking her as silver? Last night had supper with the Lowe's after church and he told me about the Doug Dynasty guys coming to his property and they were looking for treasure. They weren't even looking for silver, but I gather that they had equipment. We want to find the stuff that is here and apparently they started digging up. There's good stuff here. We are going to look for it and we're going to find it because we really want it.

And I haven't talked at length with Jay and Melanie about how long they look, but they looked, they looked hard and they found some stuff that they liked. That's what this passage of scripture is saying you've got to do if you want to know truth. You can't just treat it like this as some avocation, some kind of hobby that you pay attention to every few days. Cry out for wisdom. Lift up your voice for understanding. Search for it. Seek it as silver.

Search for it as for hid treasure. There's all these ifs and then you see the then. Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom.

From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Well, that really went along well with my final point, which is what's the prescription that is given for us and that's we must pay more careful attention. That's an example of what it means to pay more careful attention.

But we're back to the text and saying that there are dangers that we face and the dangers are subtle. It's just not paying attention. That's when things drift away. It's neglecting.

Just kind of not paying attention to it. So if someone comes to me with sadness, prolonged sadness or lack of faith, one of the first things I'm going to ask is what does your devotional life look like? Are you neglecting the means of grace that God has put into your hands? Well then how can you expect that you're going to find the knowledge of God and understand the Lord if you're neglecting the things that he specifically has told you to do? He has said seek and you will find.

And the Greek present tense has not just the sense of temporality in it, what time it is right now, but it also has the duration of the action included in it. And so that you could well translate those words of Jesus, seek and keep on seeking. Ask and keep on asking. Knock and keep on knocking. For everyone who asks and keep on asking receives.

Everyone who knocks and keeps on knocking has the door opened to him. It's the opposite of neglect. You're keeping with it. But these are subtle dangers that confront us. We just get busy and we drift away. We just get busy and we neglect the things that are going to keep the word of God hot and ready and burning in our hearts. The consequences are scary. Verse three says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

We won't escape. If you're a Christian and you neglect this great salvation, then Father is going to spank you because he chastens everyone that he loves and he's not going to just let you drift away. He's not going to let you just live a life of neglect. He's going to spank you. And he knows how to spank you. He knows how to spank me to get our attention.

That's not his first choice. So I had to leave a few minutes before David was finished preaching this evening, but he may have gotten to the part of Psalm 22 when the Lord says, I will guide you with my eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding but which must be guided with bit and bridle else they will not come near you. So the Lord says, I can put a bit in your mouth. I can put a ring in your nose. I can put a halter on your face and I can lead you that way.

That's not my first choice. I'll guide you with my eye. If you grew up in church with a mom looking at you, then you know what that means.

You start misbehaving and mama can look at you and say, son, if you do that again, I'm going to give you the awfulest spanking you ever got in your whole life and you wish that you hadn't even lived to see this day. She can just say that just looking at you with wine. And you better pay attention to that look. And the Lord says, I'll guide you that way. I'll guide you with my eye.

Don't make me put a bit in your mouth. If you're God's child and you ignore this great salvation, you won't escape punishment from the father. If you are not God's child and you neglect this salvation, you will not escape damnation. You will perish under the judgment and the anger of God.

And your punishment will be all the more severe because you have grown up in the family that you've been in. You've been in this church or churches like this. You've had a Bible in your hands that you ignored.

You had access to listen to preachers, if not in person, then on the internet or on the radio and you neglected it all. And your punishment will be all the more severe for he, that servant who knows his master's will and does not do it will be beaten with many stripes. A servant who does not know his master's will and does not do it will be beaten with few stripes.

Both of them are going to get beaten, but the one who knows better is going to be beaten more severely. Jesus was able to say to the cities of Korazin and Capernaum, woe to you, Korazin. For if the miracles that had been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago. Woe to you, Bethsaida. If the miracles that had been done in you had been performed in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented long ago. It will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and Gomorrah than for you. Another place Jesus said, if I had not come and done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.

Not that they would be sinless, but they would not be guilty of the great towering sin of rejecting the truth that was so plainly revealed to them by a messenger from heaven whose authenticity was confirmed by those who heard him, by God himself through signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. So what is the prescription that the Lord gives to us here? It's right there in the very first verse. Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard.

We must pay more careful attention. I was reading in the book of Jeremiah this morning and the Lord says, I would speak to them but their ears are uncircumcised. Now you know poetry is written in such a way that you're supposed to stop and ask yourself, what does that mean? You're not supposed to read poetry just the same way you read prose. Poetry is supposed to make you stop and think. Don't be like the horse. Don't be like the mule which have no understanding.

You think about that. So he says, I would speak to them but their ears are uncircumcised. Now circumcision was a sign of God's covenant and it set the people of Israel apart from all the other nations of the world. But it had a spiritual significance. It meant you're supposed to be separate from the world.

You're different from everybody else. This is the sign but in the New Testament we see it clearly. It says at the end of Romans chapter 2, a man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly. Neither is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men but from God. So circumcision, physical circumcision in the way that it was practiced under the old covenant was symbolic of saying, you are not supposed to act like the world. And then God says to Jeremiah, I would speak to them but their ears are uncircumcised.

They're just always listening to worldly stuff. I was talking to my wife yesterday as I took a walk before church and coming from cars, coming from garages, I could hear music, the music of the world coming. And I said to her, I think it's remarkable that we spend most of our lives listening to music that was composed and performed by rebellious young men who hate God. And we think that's not going to have any effect on us. We spend so much of our leisure time looking at artistic content or informational content that has been created by people who totally disagree with the idea that the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord.

Everything that they do is produced with no regard whatsoever to the fear of the Lord. I think we've got some circumcision that needs to be done on our ears. We don't want to have our ears to be just always filled up with so much noise that we can't hear what God is saying, can't hear the message that God is sending. If we are going to give more earnest heed, I think we need to cut down on some of the noise that is filling our lives. As I'm getting older, I find it increasingly more difficult to hear conversations in restaurants. Some of you old people nod your heads.

The same thing's happening to you. You've got that kind of hearing loss that with a whole bunch of ambient noise, you have trouble hearing the person that you really want to hear. Well, that's true not just for old people spiritually. That's true for young people spiritually. Part of giving them more earnest heed is concentration, concentration that instead of spreading the light all over the place, I've got a flashlight that's got a head on it that you can kind of pull the head back and the light will spread out and you push the head forward and the light concentrates down on the little beam.

That's what you need to do with your brain. You need to take it off that wide beam that's looking at everything in the whole wide world and focus on the message that Jesus has brought to you. So an important part of paying more careful attention is concentration and another important part is continuation, that you just keep at it. You know, Pastor Vartman's been pastor of this church for 50 years, so started pastoring when he was four years old at this church. I believe him to be a man of integrity and careful study and diligent in the ministry. So that leads me to say I guarantee you what he knows now about God is immeasurably more than he knew 50 years ago. He's kept at it.

If you just keep at it, it's just amazing. If you ask and keep on asking and seek and keep on seeking, if you cry after knowledge and lift up your voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasure, then shalt thou find understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. And there are people in this room who can say, well, if I may say so humbly, I say that it is true. It is true that if you pay careful attention and you do it for a long time, you do come to understand the fear of the Lord, which I take to be a synecdoche for true religion. The fear of the Lord is not just not only respect for him, but a figure of speech that refers to the entire gamut of true religion.

I think it's often summarized as the fear of the Lord. Then you'll understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. And there is nothing that is more enriching than to know God. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Moses says, Oh Lord, please show me your glory. And the Lord says, I won't pass by you and I will proclaim my name.

And here's what he said. Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. And when we turn our eyes away from all the toys of earth and the things of earth grow strangely dim and the light of his glory and grace, then we're able to say with the psalmist, whom have I in heaven but you? And being with you, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. And the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. I have a goodly inheritance. Amen.