The Greatness of Jesus Christ

But we're going to turn now to our Bibles. Edward Lobb is going to be leading us in these! next few weeks through some of these opening chapters of the letter to the Hebrews with a real! focus on one of the great themes of this letter the perseverance of God's people.

And so we're going to read this morning from chapter 1 down to chapter 2 verse 4. And if you need a Bible there's some visitors Bibles at the side at the back.

Don't hesitate to pick one up so that you can follow on with what we'll be studying. So Hebrews 1 at verse 1. Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. But to which of the angels did God ever say you are my Son today I have begotten you? Or again I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.

And again when he brings the firstborn into the world he says let all God's angels worship him. Of the angels he says he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.

But of the Son he says your throne oh God is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. And you Lord laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish but you remain.

They will all wear out like a garment like a robe. You will roll them up like a garment. They'll be changed. But you are the same. And your years will have no end. And to which of the angels has he ever said sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?

Are they the angels not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? Therefore we must pay much 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 it 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. Amen. May God bless to us his word.

Well good evening friends. Very good to see you all here. Can we turn to Hebrews chapter 1? I'm due to be speaking at our evening services for four consecutive Sundays and I'd like to take the opening chapters of this letter to the Hebrews up to chapter 4 verse 13. You'll perhaps be curious to know why I've chosen this section of the Bible. Well you'll get a good clue from the title that I'm giving to this series which is the perseverance of Christ's people. Perseverance. I've come to see from reading the New Testament letters over and again that probably their main purpose, they have a number of purposes, but perhaps their main purpose is to stimulate their readers to keep going in the Christian faith. Not only to keep believing, but to keep on serving actively. And why do the authors of these letters feel that they must write like this? Because they know that there will be a constant pressure on Christians to drop out, to fall away, or to use a Tron Church metaphor, to stop being active on board crew members of the Lord's crew members of the Lord's lifeboat and to become either mere passengers or to leave the ship entirely. God's purpose in causing these letters to be written and to become part of our

Bible is to spur us on to joyful, active, lifelong membership of the body of Christ. Lifelong.

We're all engaged in a very long journey. It's the journey from the cradle to the grave. And it consists of many a long mile. Many of you are closer to the start of that journey than others. Others of us, if you're like me, have got one foot in the grave already. But the Lord expects the other foot to be an active foot, not simply propped up on a chaise long, waiting for the sun to set, but being about the Lord's business.

Now this letter to the Hebrews is a powerful stimulant to us, whether we're older or younger, to keep on loving and serving the Lord Jesus lifelong. Let me read you a fine paragraph written by Professor F.F. Bruce in the preface to his commentary on Hebrews. He writes, this letter reminds Christians that it is no part of their calling to settle down and be content with things as they are, but to press forward continually in God's advancing purpose along the trail already blazed by Jesus, the pioneer of faith. And when they are tempted to be discouraged and give up the onward march, it revives their drooping spirits and supplies many incentives to press on to that eternal commonwealth, which is the true homeland of loyal souls. End of quotation. Now the whole of this letter, and not least this first chapter, opens up to us a view of just how great our Savior Jesus really is. And the author of the letter wants to concentrate on Jesus, because he knows that if we can really grasp how great our Savior is, and how great is the salvation that he has won for us, we shall then be persuaded never to desert him. Nobody knows who wrote this letter. It's not signed, and there's no clear indication of who it was written to, except that its first readers almost certainly were Jewish Christians who were facing a strong temptation to desert the Lord Jesus and go back to the synagogue. Because in the early Roman Empire, Jews were often not persecuted in the way that

Christians were. And if this letter was written in about 65 AD, which is a good guess, Nero was then the Roman Emperor, and he was a vicious and ruthless persecutor of the church. So our author throughout the letter is wanting to persuade his readers not to fall away from the Lord Jesus. And in this first chapter, he is saying to them, get your minds focused on just how great our Savior is. You may have too small and too shallow a conception of him. And if your understanding of him is limited and shallow, it may seem a light thing to leave the church and go back to the synagogue.

Now we too, 2,000 years later, we need to grasp what the author is saying. Because if our view of Jesus is small and shallow, it may seem a light thing to us to desert the church and go back, not to the synagogue, but to the unbelieving world.

Well, let's head for the text as the bee heads for the nectar. We'll take it in three sections. First, we'll look at verses 1, 2, and 3, which is about the greatness of Jesus, the greatness of who he is, and the greatness of what he has done. The second section runs from verse 4 to the end of the chapter. And in this section, our author contrasts Jesus with God's angels. His point being that Jesus is immeasurably greater than the angels. And the third section is chapter 2, verses 1 to 4.

But I won't say what that is about until we get there. So first of all, verses 1 to 3, the greatness of Jesus Christ. It would be hard to find another passage anywhere in the New Testament that expresses so much about Jesus in so few words. Let me draw eight points from these three verses. Are you ready?

Quickfire points. First, God has spoken finally, definitively, and decisively to the world in the person of Jesus. Verse 1. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. Now, fundamental to all truth is the fact that God has spoken. If he had not, we would be in the dark about everything, and we'd be miserable.

But he has spoken, and that's why we can be glad. In these first two verses, the author of Hebrews is contrasting God's former speech with his more recent speech, his speech of old time with his speech in these last days. In the past, he says, verse 1, God spoke to the fathers of Israel by the prophets.

Now, that means by the whole of the Old Testament. In our author's thinking, it all comes under the heading of prophecy, whether we're thinking of Moses and Samuel, David, Isaiah, the Proverbs, all the history books, all the writing prophets. Everything in the Hebrew scriptures is what our author means by the prophets. But now, in sharp contrast, God has finally spoken by his Son. Now, where do we learn about Jesus? Well, in the New Testament, our author is not saying that the Old Testament is inferior and the New Testament is superior. He is not saying that the Old Testament is primitive and the New Testament is sophisticated. In his thinking and teaching, the Old Testament is promise and the New Testament is fulfillment. The Old Testament is not some pale, shadowy, flimsy thing. On the contrary, it is the very Word of God. As verse 1 puts it, God spoke by the prophets. But now, in these last days, as the end of all things presses in upon us, God has spoken by his Son. To whom? Well, our author tells us in verse 2, to us, to us, to us who are living in the last days. And that is the whole period between the ascension of Jesus and his return. So when our friends who are not Christians ask us, but how has

God spoken? Our best reply is to say, in the words and works and person of Jesus. This is how great Jesus is. He is the full and final revelation of the character and will of the one and only God.

In Jesus, God has decisively spoken. Second, as verse 2 tells us, God has appointed him as the heir of all things. The heir of all things. Now, that is a hefty inheritance, to put it mildly. The author of Hebrews is assuming that his readers are familiar with the laws of human inheritance, how the son of a king or a nobleman is the heir to his father's property and honors and titles. So in modern Britain, the Prince of Wales will inherit his father's titles and properties and responsibilities.

A few palaces, a few castles, a few estates, and a great deal of money. But Jesus is the heir of all things, not just of this world, but of the universe. And if you glance forward to chapter 2, verse 5, you'll see that he is also the heir of the world to come. So when this present world is wound up and finished, we will find him ruling over the kingdom that is yet to come. Do you want to be there with him in the everlasting kingdom of heaven? If you do, don't desert him now. Third, from the end of verse 2, it's through him that God created the world. Now, that's not the best translation because the Greek word rendered here as the world really means the ages. And that means the whole created universe of space and time, not merely our small planet. Through the agency and power of Jesus, God created everything.

There are other verses in the New Testament that say exactly the same thing. Listen to Paul in Colossians chapter 1, verse 16. By him, that is by Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And here's John, John the Apostle in his gospel, chapter 1, verse 3. All things were made through him, through Jesus. And without him was not anything made that has been made. So every created thing was made by Jesus, every single thing, every mountain, every tree, the rivers, the oceans, and everything that lives in them, the squid, the octopus, the basking shark, not to mention the poodle and the piglet. Nothing was made except through the powerful agency of Jesus. Look at my hands. Look what I can do. Can you wiggle your fingers like this?

You probably can. Who gives us the power to do that? Everything is created by Jesus. Fourth, he is the radiance of the glory of God, as verse 3 puts it. Now the idea here is of a beautiful shining out of glorious light. There are several moments in the Bible when a divine and wonderful light appears. For example, in Revelation chapter 1, the Lord Jesus appears to John the Apostle.

And John describes him and says this, The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, Fear not. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul writes, God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Just as the radiance of the sun travels 93 million miles and blesses the earth, so in Christ, the glorious light of God shines into the hearts of men and women. Fifth, verse 3 tells us that Jesus carries the exact imprint of God's nature. Not a blurred or watered down version of God's nature, but the exact imprint. Now it's true that you and I have been made in the image of God, but in us that image is badly distorted by the fact that we're sinners. Our sin has corrupted and corroded the image of God in our characters. But in Jesus, we have an exact representation of God's image. Peter Adam, who was here with us last week, has written this, There is no private side of God obscured behind a public side revealed in Christ. The true and full character of God is made clear and open to us in Jesus. End of quote. There's that wonderful moment in John's Gospel, chapter 14, when the Apostle Philip says to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father and we shall be satisfied. Jesus replies, Have I been with you all this time, Philip? And you still don't recognize me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

So when your friend who's not a Christian says to you, What is God really like? You can say, Study the character of Jesus and you'll soon know exactly what God is like. Jesus carries the exact imprint of God's nature. Sixth, still in verse three, Jesus upholds the universe. Now, isn't that extraordinary? Have you noticed that before? He upholds the universe, not like a kind of grunting, sweating weightlifter in the Olympic Games who looks as if he might die on the spot under the weight. How does Jesus do it? Simply by the word of his power, his powerful word. So Jesus not only created everything by his word, he sustains everything by the word of his mouth. Astronomers have calculated that there must be at least 11 trillion trillion stars. Was it two or three months ago? There were a few astronauts who went right around the dark side of the moon. Do you remember that? And came back again. A wonderful feat of courage and technology.

But Jesus sustains the whole universe by his word, which never flags and can never be exhausted. Seventh, now at this point, our author moves from describing Jesus in cosmic and eternal terms to what he has done for us human beings in history. And that is that he has cleansed us. He has removed the death dealing power of our sins. As verse three puts it, he has made purification for sins. Now to have our sins cleansed was always our greatest need, because it was our sins that alienated us from God and placed us under his judgment. The greatest need of human beings has never been for food or clothes or education. What we human beings have needed above everything else is to be forgiven. And that's what Jesus has done for us. He has died on the cross for us so that we should be purified of our sins. If you're a Christian, your sins have been cleansed, gone. If you're not yet a Christian, the barrier of your sins stands between you and God.

And there's nothing that you can do to remove it. Only Jesus can do it. But he will, if you are willing to come humbly to him and ask for mercy. Then eighth, still in verse three, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. And that means that he is at the right hand of God. That is the place of highest honor and power in the universe. And see how our author expresses it. He sat down because his job was done. He had successfully completed his greatest and most wonderful work for us, which was to purify his people of our sins. So in just these first three verses, the author of Hebrews describes the greatness of Jesus in eight different ways. Now, in our thinking about Jesus, we tend to concentrate on Jesus, the man, the man of 30 or 32 years who taught in the fields and on the hillsides, who healed the sick, who fed the 5,000, who cast out demons, trained his disciples. Now it's good and very important that we think of him like that. But the author of Hebrews is lifting our eyes to the stars and beyond. And he makes us see Jesus in his matchless power and cosmic greatness so that we should bow down to him and be persuaded never to desert him, but to cling to him forever, because we shall find eternal salvation in no one else. Friends, what each of us needs is to be deeply persuaded of the cosmic greatness of our

Lord Jesus. It's one thing to read these words off the page in black and white, but it's another thing to get these truths deeply into our systems. What we need is powerful persuasion. Let me draw a parallel. Is there anybody here who thinks that the earth is flat rather than spherical?

No, not one. No hand has been raised. Ah, well, a few centuries ago, most people did believe that the earth was flat. Then the daring doctrine began to get about that actually the earth was a sphere shaped like a football. And after a while, everybody was persuaded that the earth was spherical. But it took a while for the people of the world to become deeply persuaded. Now, in a similar way, when people first encounter the figure of Jesus, they think of him, understandably, as a man, perhaps a man possessing unusual powers, a very remarkable man, but a man. But as we probe our way into the New Testament, we begin to discover that while he is thoroughly human, and still is, he is immeasurably greater than a mere human being. We read the New Testament. We hear teaching on the New Testament.

Our hunger to understand Jesus grows greater. And we gradually become persuaded of the immense cosmic reality of our Savior. These first three verses of Hebrews open up to us a view of his eternal dimensions. They give us a small taste of his almighty power. And the purpose of the author of Hebrews in writing like this about Jesus is to drill into our hearts the truth about him, and to drill it in so deeply that we become as certain of his being the divine Son of God as we are that the earth is spherical.

Nobody is going to remove from your heart the conviction that the earth is spherical. And if you and I are willing to read and reread these verses in Hebrews, we shall finally become so deeply persuaded of the power and deity of Jesus that not even the fiercest of traumas and pressures that can batter and bruise us will dislodge us from being lifelong servants of our Savior.

We shall be persuaded that God has spoken fully to us in the person of Jesus. We shall be persuaded that the universe is his inheritance, that he created the world, that the glory of God shines from him, that his character expresses fully and accurately the character of God the Father, that he sustains the universe by his powerful word, that he is seated at the right hand of his Father, and to our relief and our joy that he has brought about the forgiveness of our sins, all of them, including the ones that have most troubled our consciences. Now, secondly, from verses 4 to 14, Jesus is immeasurably greater than the angels.

That's perhaps rather surprising to people like us that the author of Hebrews suddenly launches into a comparison of Jesus with God's angels. But God's angels feature in the Bible much more than most Christians are aware. The fact is there are almost 300 references to the angels in the Bible. And the last verse of Hebrews chapter 1 tells us that they are ministering spirits sent out by God to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. In other words, their job is to serve Christian people.

Now, there are perhaps reasons why Christian people are hesitant to think or speak very much about angels. I say that because the Bible makes it clear that they don't have bodies as we do. They don't marry, they don't procreate, and we don't normally see them. I have never knowingly seen an angel. And they've received a rather bad press from artists. They've often appeared in paintings of Bible scenes.

Sometimes in stained glass windows in church buildings. But they tend to look rather ineffective, wearing flimsy white robes. And they often have rather effeminate faces. They look a bit like the choir from the local girls' school. And you think to yourself, are these really the mighty warriors of the Lord's army? Are these the hosts of heaven? They look flimsy. They look weak.

However, the Bible treats them very differently and always honors them. It always speaks of them as real and powerful and utterly concerned for the welfare of God's people. Why then does the author of Hebrews go to some trouble and length to assert that Jesus is overwhelmingly superior to the angels, as he does in verse 4, where he says that Jesus has become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Angelic brew. That's better for the throat. Now, the main reason for this contrast between Jesus and God's angels is that there seems to have been a strong desire in ancient society to take an overdeveloped interest in angels and even to worship them.

Here's an interesting example that comes from the very last chapter of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22, where the Apostle John is being shown stupendous revelations of the end of the world by an angel.

And he writes this. When I heard and saw these things, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me. But he said to me, you must not do that.

I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God. So the angel is scandalized that it should even cross John's mind to worship him.

Worship is for God alone. Then there's Paul in Colossians chapter 2. He's warning the Colossian Christians against false religionists.

And he writes this. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason.

That's Colossians 2 verse 18. Now, Paul would not have written that unless there had been some kind of a cult of angel worship cropping up in various places. It was clearly a serious problem in the ancient world.

So the author of Hebrews is saying to his readers, don't let anybody pull the wool over your eyes about angels. If anyone tries to get you to join the angel worshiping club, tell him politely to jump into the river.

Angels are wonderful. They serve the Lord. As verse 6 tells us, they worship God's firstborn, that is Jesus. And as verse 7 puts it, their winds, their flames of fire, beautiful descriptions suggesting their power and their love for God.

But Jesus is infinitely superior to them. Our author is saying to his readers, you must clarify your thinking about him. He is the one to worship, not the angels.

Now, these verses, verses 4 to 14, actually say a great deal more about Jesus than they do about the angels. So they continue to develop the great themes started in verses 1, 2, and 3.

As we've seen, verses 1, 2, and 3 have given us an eight-course meal about Jesus. But verses 4 to 14 give us five more courses about Jesus.

And every course stimulates our appetite for Jesus and develops our understanding of who he really is. Can you manage five more? Anyone asleep?

Raise a hand. First, verse 4, his name, his name. The name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Now, think of his name for a moment.

Think of Matthew chapter 1. Before Jesus was born, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph, Mary's fiancée, to tell him that the baby Mary was carrying had been conceived by the Holy Spirit and that Joseph, his adoptive father, must name him Jesus.

Now, the explanation is given for the name. The angel says, for he will save his people from their sins. Now, that's why his name is so precious and wonderful to us.

The one named by God as Jesus is the one who saves us from our sins. As John Newton put it in his fine hymn, how sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear.

It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear. Why should the name of Jesus drive away our fear?

Because that name assures us that we who trust him have had our sins forgiven. The sins which have corrupted us and made us filthy and miserable and have traumatized our consciences.

They're completely taken away by Jesus. Secondly, verse 5, Jesus is the Son of God. For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my Son, today I've begotten you, or again I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

Now, you see, there are two questions posed in that verse, and the answer to both is not one. Of course, no angel has ever been called God's Son. Verse 6 presses the point home.

The angels worship the firstborn Son of God, the Lord Jesus. Now, you don't worship somebody who is your equal, but we do worship the Son of God, who has the authority to forgive us and to cause us to be radically transformed by giving us the Holy Spirit and making us children of God.

God's angels worship Jesus. Then thirdly, look at verses 7 to 9. The actual nature of the angels is contrasted with the actual nature of Jesus.

Verse 7 describes the angels as winds. They're also described as God's ministers. The word minister simply means servant, and they're a flame of fire.

But, verse 8, and here's the great contrast. Of the Son, God says... Now, prepare for an extraordinary revelation.

The quotation in verses 8 and 9 is lifted straight out of Psalm 45, a psalm addressed to a young king of Israel on his wedding day. But this young king of Israel, though, of course, a mortal man whose reign would be terminated by his death, this young king is addressed as God.

And more than that, that his throne is forever and ever. And this is a powerful, prophetic psalm in which the figure of the young mortal king is transfigured into the person of God himself, who rules everlastingly.

And the author of Hebrews is saying not only that Psalm 45 finds its fulfillment in Jesus, but that Jesus is God. That's what it's saying.

Not God the Father, but God the Son. And that his throne is everlasting. Of no angel could such things ever be said. Then fourth, in verses 10 to 12, another psalm is quoted.

This time it's Psalm 102. The psalm quoted in verses 8 and 9 asserts the deity of Jesus. But the psalm quoted in verses 10 to 12 asserts that Jesus is the creator of both the earth and the heavens.

Now, our author has flagged up the creative power of Jesus already in verse 2, as we've seen. But in verses 10 to 12, he develops this theme by contrasting the everlasting life of Jesus with the limited life, the limited life of the earth and the sky.

Now, do you think of the lifespan of our planet as limited? Think of its great strong lumps. Think of the Himalayas. Think of the European Alps.

Think of the Scottish Cairngorm Mountains. They seem so solid and so old as to be indestructible. But we're being taught here that their lifespan is limited.

Look at verse 11. They, that is the earth and the heavens, will perish, but you, Jesus, remain. They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe.

You will roll them up like a garment. They will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end. I think I'm looking at the men here more than the ladies, but do you ever regretfully pick up an old jacket or a beloved pair of trousers and drop it into the dustbin, knowing that if you don't, somebody who cares about you will say that if you wear those rags again, you will look like a vagabond in the last stages of decrepitude.

We all have to throw away our old clothes, don't we? Psalm 102 is telling us that however ancient the world is, it is not going to last. The Lord Jesus will roll it up like an old robe and discard it without regret, but he remains the same, verse 12, and his years will never end.

Isn't Jesus immeasurably great? And fifth from verse 13, Jesus is the conqueror of all his enemies. Verse 13, And to which of the angels has God ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?

Now the quotation there is from Psalm 110. God the Father invites his son to sit at his right hand and to stay sitting there until all his enemies are subdued, thwarted, tied up, trussed up like turkeys, as Jesus rests his feet upon them to indicate that he has rendered them utterly impotent.

Now Jesus had then and still has many enemies, the influential writers and thinkers who propagate atheism and agnosticism, the governments and nations that decree the abolition of Christianity in their countries, the false religious faiths that enslave those who belong to them, above all, the devil with the endless deceptions and temptations by which he seeks to entice us and lure us into miserable slaveries.

Jesus is the conqueror of all these things. In verse 13, that little word until is important. You see, it hasn't happened fully yet.

The day of judgment is still in the future. But Jesus, in the end, will overcome all that opposes him. He is invincible. And if we belong to him, we're on the winning side.

We share in his invincibility. Well, let's turn finally to the first few verses of chapter 2, where we discover that our author is still writing about angels.

And it's here that we discover the biggest reason why Jesus has been contrasted with the angels. The book of Exodus doesn't say this explicitly, but it was widely believed by the early Jews that the law of Moses was given by God to Moses through the agency of angels.

That it was angels who were mediators and they acted as, it was they who conveyed the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. So let me read from verse 1, and I want you to feel the power of the contrast between angels and Jesus.

Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, that's the law of Moses, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation, the salvation brought by Jesus.

Now do you see what the author is saying? In verse 2, the message declared by angels, the law of Moses, the whole basis of Old Testament faith, that message proved to be reliable.

Anyone who disregarded it or transgressed it or despised it suffered severe punishments, punishments that he could not escape. So if the message delivered by mere angels carried such weight, such force, what can we expect to happen to us if we disregard and neglect the message of salvation delivered to us not by angels but by the all-powerful Son of God?

Look at verse 3. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation, a salvation which entirely eclipses the blessings given by the law of Moses?

This is why our author has labored to show us why Jesus is immeasurably greater than the angels. The angels' message, the law of Moses, was so powerful that to transgress it was to invite destruction and death to the transgressor.

And if that was the case, how could you or I possibly escape eternal banishment from the presence of God if we neglect the salvation offered to us by Jesus?

Now friends, do you feel the seriousness of this? If you never have done, you need to. This is the word of God that we're dealing with. Look again at verse 1.

We must pay much closer attention to what we've heard. The writer is saying to us, attend with the most careful attention. Forget everything else. Nothing matters in comparison with this.

And if we don't pay attention, what will happen to us? Well, look at verse 1. We shall drift away from the gospel as if we were small boats drifting gently and carelessly down the river Zambezi towards the Victoria Falls, quite unaware of the terrible danger that we're in.

How shall we escape? How could we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? That is the unanswerable question. There is no escape from destruction if we neglect the gospel.

It is a great salvation, great in what it cost the Lord Jesus and great in what it has achieved for all who cling to him, namely, deliverance from eternal death and God's sure promise of eternal life, the assurance of being with God in the glory of the world to come forever.

Do you want to be saved? If you do, pay the closest attention to the message brought by Jesus. This danger of drifting away is so real.

It can happen to anybody. I've seen it happen to people who were active servants of the Lord Jesus for many years. But something happened in their lives.

A trauma, a difficulty, a sadness, a sin. And they turned their backs on the only one who could save them. And in the words of verse 3, they ended up neglecting the great salvation of Jesus.

They'd glimpsed it. They'd embraced it. And then they drifted away from it. And this is why the author of Hebrews lovingly insists throughout the whole letter that we persevere with the Lord Jesus, even if it costs us dearly, even if our faith at times brings us ridicule and rejection.

we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard because Jesus came to do what no angel could ever do. If the message declared by angels proved reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape the judgment of God if we neglect such a great salvation?

Let's bow our heads and we'll pray. Our dear Lord Jesus, Son of God, how you have loved us.

You went to the cross for our sake. You shed your blood in pain and agony. in order to win forgiveness for us. So we pray that you will fill our hearts with thankfulness for what you have done and that you will persuade us so deeply of your glory and power and deity that we never neglect the message of salvation or drift away from you.

And we ask it for your name's sake. Amen. Amen. Thank you.