God has an encouraging word for you and me today, through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton as we open the book of Hebrews together.
Yes, as a matter of fact, it's Hebrews chapter 2 as we dive into experiencing God through the greatness of salvation. Today's message from Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, seminary professor, most of all, pastor. We would love to share him with you today as we open the Word of God together, and we'd love to share with you in your burdens, what's going on in your life that you'd like to have us encourage you in prayer. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD. We would love to pray with you, not just now during the broadcast, but anytime at 866-899-9673, or meet us online as well at tewonline.org.
That's tewonline.org. Now today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Dr. Wilton. Now before we read the first three verses, I want to say a few words. Our subject this morning, experiencing God through the greatness of salvation. Now, beloved friends, there is nothing that is more important that we could ever talk about.
There is nothing that we could ever read about. There is nothing more important that we could ever experience in our own lives than salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is absolutely vitally and fundamentally the single most important issue that any of us could ever deal with at any time in our entire existence. In fact, salvation is our existence. And salvation is our existence for all time and for all eternity. And so our subject this morning, experiencing God through the greatness of salvation. Now I'm going to read just three verses, but if you will beg my pardon today, I'm going to stop once or twice as I'm prone to do because there is so much in this passage. So I'm going to do just a little exegesis. That means I'm going to just do a little bit of an unraveling of some of these words here as I begin to speak and to preach what God has laid upon my heart. Let's read it together. Verse one, Hebrews chapter two. We must pay more careful attention therefore to what we have heard so that we do not drift away.
Let's stop right there. Here what the writer to the Hebrews writing to Christian people, the subject we is to Christian people. He is saying to men and women and boys and girls like you and me who have trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior. He is saying that we need to pay attention to the things that we have heard about concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, lest in the King James version, the authorized version puts it like this, lest at any time we should let them slip. At any time, what God has done for us in Christ Jesus will pass through our fingers.
Now, what did he mean by that? You cannot lose your salvation if you've given your life to Christ. But what the writer to the Hebrews is saying here very clearly, my friends, is that it is possible as a believer if we do not pay attention to what God has made available to us and for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is possible to be born again and to know that we know that we're going to heaven one day and yet to lead a defeated powerless life as a believer. It is possible to be a believer and yet not to live in the fullness of the Spirit of the living God. Now, how does that apply to the unbeliever? Well, that applies to the unbeliever in no different sense of the word, accepting it is far more serious than that. Because for the unbeliever, the person who has not trusted Jesus Christ, if you do not pay attention to the things that God has done for us in Christ Jesus, in his death upon the cross, the time may come that these things are going to slip through your finger and you are going to lose your opportunity ever to give your life to Christ. Why don't you go and open the newspaper this morning? I haven't read Sunday's paper, but I'll guarantee you it's filled from cover to cover with people whose opportunity in terms of Christ Jesus has slipped through their fingers. Now look at this verse, we must pay more careful attention therefore to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. Now why? Why do we need to pay attention?
Here it is. For if the message spoken by angels was binding and that word binding their beloved friends means absolutely certain without any segment of error whatsoever. That's why we believe this is the inerrant infallible word of God and we don't apologize for it. Every word from Genesis to Revelation without apology. The Bible says if we believe that the message which has been given to us by the angels through the word of God, by the inspiration of the Spirit of God is absolutely binding.
If it is absolutely certain and consequently every violation and every disobedience received its just punishment. Here the writer to the Hebrews is just quoting Paul in his letter to the Romans. He is saying if we believe that the wages of sin is death, if we believe choir that every violation of God, every sin is punishable by death, by spiritual death. If we believe that God means what God says. Look at verse 3, here's the crux of the whole matter. How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? May the Lord write His word upon our hearts this morning.
That's the question. Experiencing God through the greatness of salvation. I love to talk about salvation. Someone said to me many years ago in Glorieta, New Mexico, as I was preaching there for one of our convention meetings. They said to me, Dr. Wilton, I believe that what you need to do is tell people how to find themselves.
You need to tell people how to pull themselves toward themselves. And when they find themselves, they're going to find within themselves innate goodness and that innate goodness is going to lead them to turn to God. I want you to know, friend, that is a very denial of everything that God's word teaches us. The Bible says we are born dead in our trespasses and in our sins.
And the writer to the Hebrews said, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Now I wonder how many of you, you need to listen to this. How many of you, now be honest with me folks, don't hide away from this now.
How many of you love to daydream? Put up your hands. Come on, come on. Thank you.
Thank you so much. I just have to settle that. I love to daydream.
My sons will tell you that in a New York second. I love to daydream. I love what's wrong with daydreaming. I love to daydream. I've imagined anything and everything you've ever imagined. I have, folks. I've got to be honest with you. I want you to do something with me this morning.
I want you to imagine that you can have anything you want except salvation. Just click your finger. There it is. I've done that. You know, listen, I've imagined. Have you ever come home from work in the evening and you are just deadbeat? I mean, you are so tired. You don't know whether you're Arthur or Martha. You don't know whether you're coming or going.
I mean, you're just tired. You don't want to talk to anybody. You've had a heavy day at the office and so you walk in and you get your favorite chair. And after all, it's Monday night and Monday night football is on and you're going to have a good time. And you inform your wife that this is not a good time to have any conversation. You want the children to go to bed and you get out all your good food. You empty out the refrigerator. You get out your favorite chocolate cake and your ice cream. And you get out popcorn and a Diet Coke to make you feel better. And you sit down and you've got the whole thing set out there in front of you and you sit down. Nobody's bothering you.
You're going to watch the game of the century. And as you sit down, all of a sudden, there's a knock on the front door. And very reluctantly, you get up and you go to the front door.
And for the first time in your life, you're going to tell someone to just go away, please. And you open the door and there's a gentleman in a dark suit and he says to you, is your name Don Wilton? And you say, yes. He says, is it Dr. Donald J. Wilton?
You say, yes, yes, yes, yes. Please, the game started. He says to you, well, I won't worry you very long, but I'm an attorney and I come from Great Britain.
And your great uncle has just passed away and he left his entire estate valued at $40 million to you. But I won't worry. Oh, come on in. Come on in. Sit down. Turn that television set off.
How many times have I told you not to have the TV on when we have guests? Would you like some popcorn? Manny could eat all my chocolate cake for all I'm interested.
All the money in the world. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? I'll tell you one better than that with apologies to Barry Tony and Dick Cox and all my dear brothers in this church. Folks, I've got to, I have dreamt. I've been wanting to say this to you for a long time.
This is serious now. Please don't laugh at me. I have imagined myself to be the world's most famous starting quarterback in the NFL. Me.
I have. I have seen myself as the starting quarterback of the New Orleans Saints. That's right.
They're going to go to the Super Bowl. I'll guarantee you. By the year 2050, it's guaranteed. And I'm famous now, folks. We talk about a man of my caliber. Everybody knows me. I mean everybody all over the world. In fact, I am so famous as the starting quarterback of the New Orleans Saints. People, fans all over the world write me letters and all they do is put on the envelope, Don USA, and it gets delivered to me. And I can see us coming down to the Super Bowl and it's held in the Superdome in New Orleans, which seats 90,000. On this day, they have 200,000 people in there.
I have a high attendance day on this particular day. And I come running out onto the field. I can just see myself running out onto the field.
And as I run out onto the field, the whole stadium stands up and they begin to chant in unison. Don. Don. Don.
I mean, have you seen these waves at the break? Don. I mean, it's just back and forth. Don. Don. Don. Don. That's me. Don.
Don. I mean, it's just unbelievable. We play the whole game. We get down to two minutes left in the game and we're trailing by five points. I know we've got to score touchdown.
The World Championship is depending on this. And so I wait. We're on the 20-odd line of the opposition and my whole line goes down and I go down waiting for the centre to snap the ball and silence comes over that stadium. And as he snaps the ball, I take the ball and I step back into the pocket.
And as I step back into the pocket, the whole stadium stands up and begins to chant. Don. Don. Don.
Don. And I pause for just a moment to wave to all my fans. And I look out for my favourite wide receiver, Bob Morgan. And he's charging down the line and I throw him the ball and he drops it. No, no, Bob.
And Bob catches the ball and it's a touchdown and we go berserk. And in the newspapers the next day, every newspaper headline says, Don Wilton does it again and I'm famous all over again. Do you know what the Bible says to Don Wilton?
God's Word says, Don Wilton, famous quarterback, how are you going to escape if you ignore so great a salvation? You see, friend, you can go from this place and sign the biggest multi-million dollar contract with the NBA, the NFL, the NHL or any other organisation you like. But how are you going to escape if you say no to the Lord Jesus Christ? You could be the most beautiful young lady that's ever come out of Spartanburg, win Miss South Carolina, win Miss Universe, Miss World. You could sign every kind of modelling contract. You could be dined and taken out and escorted by every organisation from sea to shining sea.
But how are you going to escape if you ignore so great a salvation? You can be gifted with the most brilliant mind. You could be the most brilliant CPA. You could become President of the United States. You could run the greatest political campaigns. You could be the most popular person. You could be the preacher of the greatest church in the world.
You could have so many degrees behind your name that you begin to look like a thermometer. And yet the Word of God says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? How are you going to escape if you say no to the Lord Jesus Christ?
How are you going to escape? There is nothing more important that we ever read about. There is nothing more important that we can ever speak about. There is nothing more important that we could ever be about.
There is nothing more important that we could ever experience in our own hearts and lives than the salvation that we have because Jesus Christ died upon the cross for every man and every woman and every boy and every girl for God so loved the world and He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not die but shall have everlasting life. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton. Forgive the interruption, but we'll be back with the completion of today's message in just a moment. But Dr. Wilton wants me to remind you that God stirred your heart in the middle of this conversation, this preaching that maybe you will have a question that we can pray with you about or help answer in God's encouraging Word. Feel free to call us at 866-899-WORD.
That's 866-899-9673. And I want to encourage you to meet us online as well at www.tewonline.org. It's a great place to follow Dr. Wilton, maybe connect on some of our social ministries, also hear today's message, watch some of the videos of Dr. Wilton and so many more resources including the new book, Saturdays with Billy, a powerful great new book from Dr. Wilton about his time with Dr. Billy Graham.
We'll give you more details on that at the end of the program, but you can take a peek right now online at www.tewonline.org on how you can get your copy. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. You may say to me today, Pastor, why is salvation so great? Why do you get so excited about salvation? What is it that drives those people down there at that church so much? Why is salvation the central issue of every program, of every budget, of every organization, of every committee, of every decision? Why does it all find its focus in keeping the main thing, the main thing?
Why is it that the writer to the Hebrews put that little adjective in there? How are we going to escape if we ignore such a great salvation? How can we experience God and why do we experience God through the greatness of salvation? I'm going to give to you this morning just three reasons why salvation is great.
There are hundreds of them. Three reasons why salvation is so great and why it is imperative today that we must not ignore this great salvation. Number one, because only Jesus Christ can forgive us for our sin.
Number one, salvation is great, my friend, because only Jesus Christ can forgive our sin. Now friends, we live in a world of great human achievement, don't we? Just think about it. We live in a world of great human achievement. Just think of medicine. Think of all the things that can be accomplished in the medical field today.
Heart transplants, every kind of operation and surgical procedure that you and I could ever imagine. We have some of the finest doctors and nurses and medical personnel right here in our own congregation. Gifted people. Just think of the world of science, of engineering. Think of the fact that we send spaceships up to land people on the moon.
It's amazing. But you know, my friends, there is one thing that not even Albert Einstein could do for himself. He could not forgive his own sin. There is not one of us in this place today who can forgive our own sin.
We're not capable of doing that. You know, you may get a new leg, you may get a new heart, you may get all kinds of rearrangements because we are living in a brilliant age, but there is one thing only Jesus can do. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man can come unto the Father but by me. Why is salvation so great? Because only Jesus Christ can forgive us for our sin.
Isn't that wonderful? Isn't it wonderful to know that the forgiveness of sin that we have is not dependent on me? It's not dependent on this church.
It's not dependent upon a program or a membership. It's dependent solely on what Jesus Christ has already done. What Jesus has already done is completely complete.
There is nothing more that can be done. Jesus Christ has paid in complete fullness upon the cross, the debt to God the Heavenly Father so that now we, through Jesus Christ, by virtue of repenting of our sin and by receiving Him into our hearts and lives, by faith, we are granted immediate permission to come aboard. We are granted immediate access into the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Only Jesus Christ can, will and wants to forgive us for our sin. The second reason why salvation is so great, because only Jesus Christ can make us brand new. Only Jesus Christ can make us brand new.
I met someone, they asked me to come and see them, not a member of our church. And as I began to speak to them in their place of work, they said to me, I've lost her. I've struggled all of my life. I've turned over new leaves. I've made resolutions. I've tried to live right. I've promised my wife that I wouldn't hit her again.
I've told everybody that I'll never touch another drink again. I've tried to sort my life out and I just keep falling back and things will go well for a month, two months, sometimes even six months, but eventually I'm back to square one again. I'm back in that hole. I'm back in that rut. I'm back in that struggle. I'm back hating myself.
I'm back hating myself for everything that I represent and I need to speak to you. And as I began to speak to that man in Spartanburg, South Carolina, I said to him, my dear friend, I want you to know salvation is great because only Jesus Christ can make you brand new. Here's the way the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17. Therefore, if any man, woman, boy or girl is in Christ Jesus, there he becomes a new creature. All things are passed away and behold, all things have become new.
How is that possible? Romans 8 and verse 1. There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in union with Christ Jesus.
Jesus Christ makes us brand new. And as I had the privilege of leading that man to Jesus Christ in his office, in his workplace, as I began to see the joy of the Lord Jesus Christ come upon him, I knew that what God had allowed me to do boggles the minds of all the pundits in all the world's high and lofty places. I didn't offer him a new power pack method of sorting your life out. I didn't offer him a six plan stage method of putting a smile back on your face. I didn't tell him if you do the following three things, you're guaranteed to pull yourself toward yourself.
I didn't offer him a New Year's resolution. I said to him, my friend, you cannot, you cannot escape outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot escape. Why is salvation so great? Only Jesus Christ can forgive us for our sin. Only Jesus Christ can make us brand new.
Only Jesus. Powerful teaching from Dr. Wilton today. But as we have been digesting this teaching from Hebrews 2, Dr. Don often asks us, can we ever really read God's Word and move apart from this the same? I pray that those that have known Jesus Christ for years are changing our concept of experiencing God through the greatness of salvation. But perhaps you have known about God.
My entire youth was spent knowing about God, but not knowing him. Oh, I pray that you would open your heart to perhaps the most important 60 seconds of our broadcast today as Dr. Don Wilton shares these closing thoughts. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?
I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much. And I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today, I repent of my sin.
I confess my sin to you. And I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.
This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey. If you just gave your life to Jesus Christ, praying along with Dr. Wilton, or perhaps rededicate your life, put your life back on track, I pray that you would let us walk with you in the next steps of growing your faith.
We have wonderful resources, absolutely free, that Dr. Don wants you to have if you just gave your life to Christ. If you would just call and let us know. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD.
That's 866-899-9673. And we're here not just during the broadcast, but 24 hours a day. We'd love to talk with you, pray with you. And again, if you let us know that you've given your life to Christ or rededicated your life to Jesus, this packet of information will help launch you and grow your faith. As a matter of fact, there is a wonderful book that's just been released by Dr. Don Wilton about the time he spent with Dr. Billy Graham every weekend. As a matter of fact, every Saturday for about 25 years. A wonderful book called Saturdays with Billy.
Here's Liz with the details. Discover the beautiful 25-year friendship between Billy Graham and his friend and pastor Don Wilton in the brand new book, Saturdays with Billy by Don Wilton. This handsome gift book complete with color photos, quotes by Billy Graham, and more than 20 heartwarming stories of times Dr. Wilton spent with his friend and mentor Billy Graham almost every Saturday. Just as Billy Graham's words change Don Wilton's life, they can change our lives today. This book will inspire you on your own spiritual journey. Call us today at 866-899-WORD to request Saturdays with Billy book for a gift of $20. Thank you for your prayers and continued support of the encouraging word as we continue to share God's truth with a searching world. Our time's gone for today, but what a glorious day. Coming up for the next two days, Thursday and Friday, Dr. Wilton talks about moving against the spiritual warfare that we all face, both corporately as the body of Christ, but individually as well. We'll head to Mark chapter 1 tomorrow in the study together of God's encouraging word with Dr. Don Wilton. I hope you'll join us between now and then. Let's stay connected online at www.tewonline.org
