A Great Salvation

So I pray with all my heart that God will awaken each one of us today to the sweetness, the loveliness, the glory of the gospel declared by Christ. On November 26, 2017, R.C. Sproul preached his final sermon, and what you just heard was how he concluded that sermon.

The following month on December 14, he would go home to be with the Lord. Welcome to the Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm glad you're with us. Today's sermon, Dr. Sproul's final sermon, is a passionate plea for us not to neglect this great salvation. You'll hear his trademark ability to be faithful to the text, dramatically tell a story, and his unwavering desire that his hearers, that's us, would be awakened to the sweetness, the loveliness, the glory of the gospel declared by Christ.

Here's Dr. Sproul in Hebrews chapter 2. Well, this morning we're going to continue our study of the book of Hebrews, and we're beginning a new chapter, chapter 2. We're just racing through this book, and I will be reading from verse 1 through verse 4 as we hear the Word of God.

Therefore, we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord and was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. These are the words of God, not just the Word of God but the words of God. God gave these words to the author of Hebrews, and we are to receive them with fear and trembling and with an earnest desire to respond obediently to them.

Let us pray. Again, we thank You, Lord, for the glorious message that we hear in the pages of this book of Hebrews that so richly declares the absolute supremacy of Christ. And we thank You that in Him we have received not a little salvation but a great salvation. And we ask that You would open our eyes and our hearts to understand and embrace fully this glorious gospel, for we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, after completing the seven testimonies from the Old Testament, in chapter 1 where the author of Hebrews declares the superiority of Christ over the angels, he then begins the second chapter, and I always get a little bit annoyed by how the chapter divisions were made by somebody whose name remains anonymous. It begins with the word, therefore. What a word to start a new chapter with, but the word, therefore, indicates the conclusion of an argument based upon the propositions that were stated beforehand. But in any case, after these propositions were set forth in chapter 1, chapter 2 begins with this word signifying a conclusion that is coming by the word therefore.

Therefore, and let me just pause for a second. What the author of Hebrews is getting at here is the perfect marriage between doctrine and practice. If we believe the things that he has declared in the first chapter, then that has radical implications for how we live our lives. And he's beginning to show that now when he says, therefore, we must pay much closer attention. There's a little grammatical problem in the words of that particular translation.

The tension of these words is because it's not certain grammatically whether the author is using a comparative or a superlative, and so therefore the author here sort of crunches them both together when he speaks of a much closer attention. I would prefer that he would simply say that we therefore must pay the most possible attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. Think of that image of drifting. There are some people who go fishing in boats, and they don't set the anchor down.

They just allow the boat to move with the current, and they just drift. And where they end up is somewhat problematic. The Scripture uses this kind of figurative language elsewhere when it talks about an anchor for our soul, which is the hope we have in Christ. And here he's negatively saying, don't allow yourselves to drift aimlessly away from what you've heard here. Again, he's speaking about this marvelous comparison that he's given about the superiority of Jesus over the angels and over all created things.

You've heard that. Don't drift away from it, but pay the closest possible attention to it. For since the message declared by angels, and he's referring back again to the Old Testament and the idea he ended at in Deuteronomy 33 of the law being mediated by the angels, where when Moses received the law from God, there were myriads and myriads of angels that were present on that occasion. And so he says, for since the message is declared by angels, prove to be reliable. And every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution. Again, the comparison continues.

If the law that came from the angels was ignored by the people in the Old Testament and received a just retribution, a punishment, how much more responsible are we to that which has come to us directly from Christ? Now beloved, the central theme of this chapter, or at least this portion of the chapter, is the theme of escape. When you think of escape, you think from some kind of deliverance from a dire and threatening life situation, but you think of it as an association, escaping from a kidnapper or soldiers being surrounded in battle and find a way to retreat safely.

That's an escape. But the most common idea with which we associate escape is imprisonment, not just from jail, but from those prisons that are the most notoriously inescapable, such as the former condition of Alcatraz in this country, or Devil's Island, and perhaps the most dreadful of all French prisons, the Chateau d'If. You remember the story, it's my second most favorite novel, of Edmund Dante's, who was falsely accused of a crime and unjustly convicted of that crime and then sent forthwith to the most dreaded prison, the Chateau d'If. And there he suffered for years in solitary confinement until one day he met a co-prisoner who was an aged priest who had been there for decades and spent so much time trying to dig a tunnel for possible escape, but he didn't do his math right, and he ended up just simply entering into Dante's chamber.

So, at least the two met, then they had fellowship, and the old priest became Dante's mentor and counselor, taught him all things about science and philosophy and theology, and also told him about this map that led to a vast treasure that was hidden under the waters and the sea. And then the old priest died, and through an extraordinary series of circumstances, the death of the priest led to the possible escape of Edmund Dante's from the Chateau d'If, where he then found the vast treasure that financed the rest of his life with his nanda plume, the Count of Monte Cristo. What an escape story that one is. But as dire and as dreadful as the circumstances were in the Chateau d'If, there is even a greater and more dreadful point of captivity than any human being can imagine. And the author here speaks of an escape from that, and he asks the question, how can we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

Beloved, this is a rhetorical question, and the answer to the question is simple. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? The answer is we can't. Maybe Alcatraz could possibly be escaped, or Devil's Island, or in the Chateau d'If, but the one prison from which no one ever escapes is hell. There's no escape route. You can't dig under it. You can't climb over it.

No guard can be bribed. The sentence cannot be ameliorated. And so the author of Hebrews is saying, do you realize what you've heard? That we have heard from the Word of God Himself about a great salvation. Let me just pause for a second and comment on the very idea of salvation. We use that word all the time in the church.

What does it mean? Now when somebody says to me, are you saved? The first question I want to say is, saved from what? The idea of salvation suggests the idea of some kind of escape or deliverance from a dire circumstance, and the verb sozomai there in the New Testament is used in a variety of ways. If you are saved from a threatening illness, as people were in the New Testament by the touch of Jesus, Jesus might comment, your faith has saved them. He's not speaking about eternal salvation. He's speaking about their rescue from the dreadful disease. The Old Testament was used. The people of Israel went into battle and God intervened in their behalf and saved His people.

He saved them from military defeat. That was rescue from a clear and present danger. And so this verb, to save, is used all kinds of times and all kinds of ways. And in virtually every tense of the Greek verb, there was a sense in which you were saved, you were being saved, you have been saved, you are saved, you are being saved, and you will be saved. Salvation takes all these different tenses of the verb. But there is salvation in the general sense that has its manifold applications. But when the Bible speaks about salvation in the ultimate sense, it's speaking of the ultimate escape from the ultimate dire human condition. What does it mean to be saved? It means, as the Scriptures tell us, to be rescued from the wrath that is to come. You know how I get distressed when I see that sign on I-4, God is not angry. And that message that is given to every motorist as they travel up and down I-4 is a pernicious heresy. If God is not angry, if God has no wrath, and there is no wrath to come, then that's the ultimate gospel.

It's great news. Nobody needs to worry about anything, at least about the anger of God, because they tell you God is not angry. That's not only not true. That is a pernicious falsehood to say that God is not angry. God's wrath, as we are told in Romans, is revealed to the whole world.

But we're at ease in Zion. We're not afraid of His wrath because we've been told over and over and over and over again that God's not mad, that God's not angry. We don't need to worry about God. God's going to save everybody. All you need to do is die to get into heaven. And all you need to do to get into hell is to die. And I wish that everybody who died went to heaven. But the Bible makes it abundantly clear that that's not the case and that there awaits a judgment and the greatest calamity that anybody could ever imagine is to be sentenced to hell.

The Chateau d'If is a luxury resort compared to hell. And so now the author raises this question, how do we escape? If you neglect that salvation, beloved, there's no escape.

Now the question is this, to whom is the author of Hebrews speaking? He doesn't say, how shall they escape if they neglect so great a salvation? He's not talking about the run-of-the-mill pagan that goes through life who not only neglects the gospel of salvation but is utterly disinterested in it and may be outwardly hostile to it. And we have multitudes of people that live in this country and around the world who despise the gospel. They don't just neglect it. But the author of Hebrews isn't talking about those people. He uses the word we. That's us. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

And again, the answer to the rhetorical question is, we can't, and we won't. You know, the introit this morning in the bulletin that the youth choir girls sang, did you pay attention to the words that you heard? Let me refresh your memory about those words. Listen to what they say, Oh God, You are my God, and I long for You. My whole being desires You. Like a dry land my soul thirsts for You.

Let me see You in Your sanctuary, and I will praise, and I will be satisfied as long as I live. You listen to these words. Do they sound like words that would come from somebody who neglects the gospel? What does it mean to be neglectful?

To neglect something is to overlook it, take it lightly, certainly not to devote yourself steadfastly to it. You know, somebody asked me a question a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about different congregations, and I was telling them how much I love the congregation of St. Mary's. I said, It's a fantastic congregation. And they said to me, Well, what would you say? How many people do you think in that congregation are really Christians?

I said, I don't know. I can't read the hearts of people. Only God can do that. I know everybody that's a member of the church has made an outward profession of faith. So a hundred percent of our people have professed the faith. And he says, But how many do you think really mean it? I said, I don't know, seventy percent, eighty percent.

I may be seriously overestimating that, or else I may be underestimating that. But one thing I know for sure that not everybody in this room is a Christian. How do you know if you are? Can you sing the words of this song, Oh my God, you are my God, and I long for you?

My whole being desires you. How can you be a Christian and neglect so great a salvation? Is the salvation not enough? Maybe you think it's all right, it's good, but it's really not great. Do you neglect it?

I can't answer that question. If you neglect it and treat it lightly, it probably means that you've never been converted, that God has never quickened or awakened your soul from spiritual death, because the salvation is fantastic, so great. It deserves our diligence, our energetic pursuit of it, certainly not its neglect. But I think the author of Hebrews has in mind what happened in the Old Testament, where the people in the Old Testament had their greatest moment of salvation in the Exodus, when they were prisoners, when they were slaves, where Pharaoh wouldn't give them any straw for their bricks, and they were brutally beaten and virtually imprisoned by Pharaoh. And they cried, and they groaned, and they prayed, and God heard the groans of His people, and He sent Moses to Pharaoh, and He said, Let My people go. And the horse and the rider were thrown into the sea. They came out in multitudes of people fleeing from captivity, and they got to Migdal, and in front of them there was the sea, and behind them were the chariots of Egypt. And a mighty wind came where their rout seemed to be hopeless. There was no escape, and the wind blew, and the wind dried up the Red Sea, and Israel escaped.

The chariots of Pharaoh did not. That was a great salvation. No sooner were they rescued from this tyranny, and they started complaining about the manna that God provided for them. Oh, I wish we were back in Egypt. Yeah, we might have been slaves, but we had our garlic and that sort of thing to eat, the leeks and the onions and the garlic. They betrayed their freedom like somebody from the Chateau d'If would want to go back to that jail. And the author of Hebrews has in mind throughout this book how the people of Israel in the Old Testament neglected their salvation so that there were few who ever made it to paradise.

And that's where we are right now. We've heard the Word of God. It's a message of good news, not just good news, great news, not just great news, the greatest of all possible news, that those who believe in Christ will be saved from the wrath which is to come. How can you possibly neglect it in the first place?

That's not the question the author is asking here. He says, how can you possibly escape? The question is, how could you possibly neglect such great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard the declaration, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. God then asked you to believe in His gospel by taking a leap of faith into the darkness and hope that Jesus would catch you. Nicodemus came by night, and he said, Teacher, we know that Thou art sent for God, or you wouldn't be able to do the works that you do.

Nicodemus' theology was sound. We don't try to prove the existence of God by miracles. There couldn't be miracles if you didn't first understand that God exists. The purpose of miracles is not to prove the existence of God. The purpose of miracles is to prove and attest to the truth of those who are declaring the gospel. For example, God certified Moses by miracles. He certified Jesus by miracles. He certified His apostles by miracles and powers and wonderful signs and even the spiritual gifts that were given to the pristine church to show so great a salvation that God announced to the world, this is the good news. Jesus declared it to us, not just the angels. And if you neglect what Jesus says, and you neglect what God proves, then we're back to the theme, no escape.

Beloved, if you come to church every Sunday, every single Sunday of your life, and go to Sunday school every single week of your life, you may still be neglecting this great salvation. Is your heart in it? That's what I'm asking you. And you know, I can't answer that question for you. You know if you're neglecting your salvation. You know that.

I don't have to tell it to you. I just have to tell you what the consequences are if you continue in that neglect. So I pray with all my heart that God will awaken each one of us today to the sweetness, the loveliness, the glory of the gospel declared by Christ. Let's pray. We thank You, O Jesus, that You are for us the great escape. We are thankful that because of You and what You've done for us, we have nothing to fear from the wrath that is to come. But we pray, O God, that You would feed our souls, cause us to hunger and thirst after You as the deer pants after the mountain stream. Ignite a flame in our hearts that we may not neglect You, but pursue You with everything we have.

For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. That was R.C. Sproul, and you're listening to the Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind. Although this was Dr. Sproul's final sermon, his teaching ministry continues to be used by the Lord around the world.

Many of you discovered R.C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries in the six years since his death, and we read your testimonies and notes of encouragement every day. I read one this week that simply read, his final sermon happened to be my first. Or this one, I first heard of you while in prison, and your teaching has changed my life and what I think about the Bible and its teaching. I feel free and full of truth with your help in understanding Scripture. So whether it's his teaching that is now available in over 50 languages, the Reformation Study Bible, which he served as general editor, that is helping pastors throughout Africa and Latin America who don't have access to the resources that many of us do, and is currently being translated into Arabic, or Renewing Your Mind, which is heard by and is helping countless Christians in both English and Spanish, R.C. Sproul's mission to proclaim, teach and defend the holiness of God in all its fullness to as many people as possible continues. And none of this is possible without your generosity. If you'd like to make a year-end gift in support of Renewing Your Mind and the mission that R.C. Sproul set for Ligonier Ministries, you can do so until midnight at renewingyourmind.org. Thank you. Next Sunday, we begin a brief study on the public ministry of Jesus from the Gospel of Mark. So I hope you'll join us then here on Renewing Your Mind.