How Shall We Escape If We Neglect So Great Salvation?

How Shall We Escape If We Neglect So Great Salvation?

HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE IF WE NEGLECT SO GREAT SALVATION
J. EDDIE WEEMS

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recom- pence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.” (Hebrews 2:1-3)

Brother Cox has honored me with the privilege of closing these lectures. Appropriately he placed last the subject “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” We have heard some excellent lectures concerning the Bible, the Book that will be in existence after all other books have perished. (Hebrews 4:12, Matthew 24:35, 1 Peter 1:25) Critics come and go, but the Bible remains forever.

“Precious Book, dear old Book,
On thy dear old tear-stained leaves I love to look;
Thou art sweeter day by day As we walk the narrow way,
That leads at last to that bright home above.”

Hundreds of Christians have attended these constructive lectures. In just a few minutes we shall be separating. We should leave this building to-night with these words ringing in our ears: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” In 1897 Rudyard Kipling, who died last month, wrote The Recessional, a poem commemorating the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. In this famous poem he offered a prayer in behalf of Great Britain. He said:

“Lord, God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget.” That should be our prayer tonight as we close these lectures'.

Verse three of the second chapter of Hebrews can be easily understood by an allusion to a few preceding verses. The first chapter of Hebrews closes) with the question: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? The fact that we are “heirs of salvation” suggests the great salvation in chapter two. Therefore is the connecting link between the chapters. The writer admonishes us “to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard.” The fact that Christ is superior to angels suggests the “more earnest heed.” Also, we need to give heed because spiritual enemies are rampant. The devil, our adversary, is walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8) Spiritual enemies pursue the Christian just as the birds followed the sower in the parable of the sower.

We should give heed to the things which we have heard, “lest at any time we should let them slip.” “Lest haply we drift away from them” is probably a better translation. Brother Tant’s favorite expression, “Brethren, we are drifting,” is Scriptural. Of course we are drifting, and church members have been drifting since the time of Paul. We should remember, however, that nothing ever drifts up stream. If the waters were calm, we would not drift, but the Christian mariner must combat unfavorable winds and dangerous currents. The disciples on Lake Galilee had to fight the elements. These disciples were saved because Jesus was with them. Jesus is with the Christian today; He is our Pilate. If we try to make the voyage without Him, we shall be lost. Faith is the cable that moors us to Christ, and it is the only cable that will withstand the waves of opposition.

Briefly I shall mention a few of the currents that beat upon the Christian. Nearly every day huge waves of opinions come upon us. Many weak persons lose faith and drift with the tide. No preacher should advocate his opinion. We should preach only those things that are revealed. In Deuteronomy 29:29 we read: “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” If preachers would adhere rigidly to this principle, hobbies and “isms” would be abolished from the church today. A person who rides a hobby never arrives anywhere; he gets off at the same place where he got on. He reminds me of the current jazzy song. He goes “round and round,” but he does not go very far. Balaam said: “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more.” (Numbers 22:18) That certainly should be our attitude to-day.

During the past few years roaring waves of liberalism and modernism have swept over the religious world. Thousands of religious persons permitted the cable of faith to break, and they are now drifting upon the dangerous seas. Modernism is probably the worst doctrine that infidels are expounding. It is given to the world with a religious guise. Shakespeare said that the devil can quote Scripture for his own purpose. The exponents of modernism are wolves in sheep’s clothing. A short time before Luther Burbank’s death, he preached in a Congregational church in San Francisco on the subject: “Why I am an Infidel.” A year or two ago North Westerns’ school of education sent questionnaires to five hundred Protestant ministers. Only seventy-two per cent of these ministers expressed belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ. Thirty-nine per cent denied the judgment day. Sixty-nine per cent said there is no hell. (They may change their minds some day). Forty- one per cent of these infidelic preachers denied the existence of heaven. I am glad that the church of Christ is virtually free of modernism. I am glad that we have 'no preachers who are teaching evoultion, or denying the virgiin birth of Jesus.

Young people, never let anything remove you from your mooring. When I was in school at Texas Christian University, I had one teacher who was somewhat conservative. He told me one day that he admired my convictions, and he admonished me never to let anything remove me from my mooring.

I have known many young preachers who took a liberal step, and then they began to drift. Most of them are still drifting. Somewhere I read of two children who were sitting in a small boat at the edge of the ocean. The boat was not tied securely, and the mother was not watching carefully. Before the mother realized what was happening, the boat began to drift to-ward the deep water. The mother called for help, but no help was available. The frantic mother had to stand On the shore and watch the boat drift into the blue of the ocean, never to be seen again. That was sad, but it is not nearly so sad as the spiritual drifting of young people. Mothers and fathers, watch carefully. Never let the children begin to drift. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy: “Holding faith Ond a good conscience, which some have put away concerning faith and have made shipwreck.” (1 Timothy 1:19) It is reported that John Stuart Mil] had been a believer, but he made shipwreck of his faith. He later said: I would give all that I have and all that I ever become for just one hour of that day when I looked up to the sky and called it heaven.”

I now call your attention to Hebrews 2:3, which reads, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” I shall discuss this by taking each clause separately. First, “How shall we escape?” The how is equivalent to an emphatic negative. This question is a rhetorical question; the answer is obvious. It is somewhat like the question asked Peter in 1 Peter 4:18. “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?” An answer to either of these questions would be superfluous. Brother Milligan in The New Testament Commentary said of Hebrews 2:3; “This question has been on file for the last eighteen hundred years and no one has given an answer yet.” The writer of Hebrews showed a great deal of wisdom in using the pronoun we. He did not say, “How shall you escape?” but “How shall we escape?” The personal pronoun, first person is emphatic, and it includes all of those who have accepted the gospel. The writer, probably Paul, did not mean to discredit his apostleship in using the word we, but by asso-ciating himself with his readers, he created more interest and more sympathy. This parallels the sixth chapter and the first verse. “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.” The antecedent of us is the writer and Hebrew Christians. Ordinarily in the discussion of this subject we overlook the fact that the Hebrew letter is written to Christians. Many an eloquent sermon has been preached to the alien sinner who neglects his salvation, but not enough preaching has been done to professed Christians who are prone to neglect. Every Christian to-day should use the pronoun I or we more than he does the pronoun you. Every Bible lesson is for me, not you. Peter had to learn this lesson. He said to the Lord concerning John: “What shall this man do?” (John 21:21) “Jesus saith unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” David could hot see his own faults, and it took a parable by Nathan to teach him. (2 Samuel 12) In the judgment day there will be no means of escape for those who neglect the great salvation. The laws of Texas require buildings to be equipped with fire escapes. From the flames of hell there will be no fire escapes, nor will there be a purgatory where one can burn a little while and then escape. Temporal resources will hot provide a way of escape. “Thy money perish with thee” will be the sad words spoken to those who have sold their souls for wealth. Money will not buy one a mansion in glory, nor can one transport any earthly possession to the New Jerusalem. Human strength cannnt provide a way of escape, Max Baer, Joe Louis, and Jack Dempsey will probably tremble just as much in the judgment day as the weakest person who ever lived. “The great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:17) Paul said to Timothy, “Bodily exercise profiteth a little.” (1 Timothy 4:8) Bodily exercise will profit just a little while, and the time is coming when the “arm of flesh” will fail one. Cold human philosophy will be useless in the reckoning day. The philosophy that leaves God out is weak and foolish. I have commiseration, but no admiration, for the person who makes a list of great men and places) Jesus Christ in the category of man. It is sacrilegious to place our Master in the class with George Washinton, Woodrow Wilsen, and Confucius. ”For the preaching of the cross is to them who perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God. For it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” (1 Corinthians 1:18-19)

“If we neglect so great salvation” is the last clause of the verse that we have under consideration. If we neglect salvation, we shall loose it. The farmer who neglects his crop will inot have a harvest. The student who neglects his courses will fail. The business man who neglects his business will become insolvent. It is evident, then, that we can neglect that which we have and lose it. A brief discussion of some of the ways that we can neglect the great salvation will be pertinent.

We can neglect this salvation by failing to preach it and to teach it. No person can be a Christian unless he believes and practices the great commission. In this famous commission Jesus said: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” These valedictory words of Jesus are binding now and they will be bound in heaven. Every real Christian is a missionary. Church history is replete with churches that died because they were anti-missionary. Christianity is unselfish and its exponents must be unselfish.

“You must save another’s soul if you would save your own, The doors of heaven are closed to him who comes alone.” The greatest trust that we have is the responsibility of preaching the gospel. “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” (1 Peter 4:10). Paul said to the Corinthians: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7) He wrote to the Thessalonians; “We were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men but God who trieth our hearts.” (1 Thessalonians 2:4) This treasure and this trust is inot gold, silver, or diamonds, but it is something incomparably superior to these. Unto us Christians He has committed the trust of the gospel. “Woe to me,” said Paul, “if I preach not the gospel of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 9:16) Every congregation that is not “sounding out the word” is not functioning as a New Testament church should function. The church is the candlestick to hold up the word, and if a church does not do this, it will die. We should preach the gospel in the country, in the city, at home, and abroad. We should preach the gospel until the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as waters cover the sea.

Let us preach until the sun grows cold, and the stars are old; And the leaves of the judgment book unfold.” The tragedy of this generation it the lack of Christian teaching. We believe the Bible to be the word of God, and if we do not teach it, we shall be condemned. In the great commission our Savior said, “teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. “Christian teaching should be done in the home, in the school, and in the church. “Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” is the commandment given by Paul. The Apostle Paul places so much emphasis on teaching and rearing children that he disqualifies from the eldership a man who does not have his children under subjection. I cannot understand how any person can object to teaching the Bible anywhere. Most of the inmates of our penitentiaries were never taught the Holy Scriptures in the home, or in the Bible school on Sunday morning. Solomon, the sage, said: “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) Our Christian colleges certainly have their place, as our children are entitled to the best teaching possible. No teaching can be the best unless it is Christian. The work of our Christian colleges, the Bible school, and the Christian teaching in the home is unimpugnable.

We can neglect the great salvation by our failure to practice it. We should heed the words of James. “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving your own selves.” (James 1:22) “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27) Religion is not something that one gets; it is a practice. We cannot boast of having the truth unless we practice the truth. Jesus criticised the self-righteous attitude when He said: “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20) In His memorable sermon on the mount, our Lord said unto His disciples: “If ye love them that love you, what reward have you? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye saluate your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans the same? (Matthew 5:46-47) If Jesus were here tonight, He might say to some of us: “What do ye more than others?” Doubtless the poet had observed self-righteousness in Christians when he wrote:

I would rather see a sermon than hear one any day;
I would rather one would walk with me than merely tell the way.” The salvation under Christ is immeasurably superior to that of any other dispensation, for that reason it is called “so great salvation.” Christ spoke of the great salvation, (Hebrews 2:3 and Hebrews 5:8-9) and it was confirmed unto us by the apostles, the eye witnesses of the risen Lord. (Acts 1:8; Acts 1:22) “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) Christ is infinitely superior to Moses, the intermediary of the old regime, and to angels, who helped in the promulgation of the law. Jesus Christ is the counter part of God, as the following Scriptures prove: “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up to glory.” (1 Timothy 3:16) “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.” (2 Corinthians 5:19) Under the Christian dispensation we have Jesus Christ as our perennial Prophet, our abiding High Priest, and our King of kings. Our law is called “the perfect law of liberty.” (James 1:25) This could not be said of the law the Jews were under. “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did.” (Hebrews 7:19) The Hebrews took their bloody sacrifices to the altar and offered them as temporary offerings. These animal sacrifices could not remove their sins; they merely rolled them forward. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:4) Today under the great salvation we can have our sins washed away, not rolled forward.” If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) To the Colossians, Paul wrote: “Ye are complete in him who is head of all principality and power.” (Colossians 2:10) There is not one spiritual blessing denied the Christian under the reign of Christ. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3) The salvation of Noah was a temporal salvation; Noah was saved from the flood. The salvation of the Israelites was a temporal salvation; they were saved in a temporal home. The great salvation is an eternal salvation; those who are saved under it, and remain saved, will be given an eternal home (2 Corinthians 5:1) “Whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die.” (John 11:26) The fact that our salvation is greater than that of the Jews entails greater responsibilities, and probably greater punishment. The law that Moses and the angels gave could not be violated with impunity. “The word spoken by angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward.” (Hebrews 2:2) Also we are told: “They escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.” (Hebrews 12:25) We should remember this verse in connection with Hebrews 2:3. In Hebrews 10:28-29 we have this solemn warning: “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who have trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace.” Some quotations from the Master will help to em-phasize this great responsibility. Jesus said to His contemporaries who rejected Him: “The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold, a greater than Jonas it here. The queen of the south shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” (Matthew 12:41-42) On another occasion Jesus said: “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! ‘woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for it the mighty work done m you had been done in Tyre and Siddn, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And thou Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.” (Matthew 11:21-24) Certainly these scriptures are sufficient to warn us of the awful punishment that awaits us if we neglect the great salvation of Christ. If we neglect the great salvation there remains no other sacrifice for sins. (Hebrews 10:26) Christ has made the supreme sacrifice, God gave his Son to perfect the great salvation, and the Holy Spirit is working through the word. Therefore, if we reject the great salvation, we are rejecting the Trinity.

Just a few words of admonition to those who are not Christians. How can you afford to neglect your salvation? You are probably saying: “Some day I shall become a Christian, but not now.” The Holy Spirit through the word says: Behold now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2) After Governor Felix heard Paul preach, he trembled and answered: “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” “Seems now some soul to say Go, Spirit, go thy way; Some more convenient day On Thee I’ll call.” The five foolish virgins were neglectful, and they knocked at the door of the wedding, but the bridegroom would not open the doors. They came too late. If you neglect the great salvation while you are on earth, you will find the doors of heaven forever closed to you. “Why not come to Jesus now?”