Neglect to give little attention or respect to; to disregard through carelessness; to leave undone or unattended

Transcription

1 Neglecting Salvation Hebrews 2:1-4 Imagine with me the story of a young man who was given a vast amount of property by his father. The property consisted of thousands upon thousands of acres. It had rich pasture, lush forests, clear, flowing streams, and trees of every kind. Beneath the surface, there was a vast reservoir of oil. There were deposits of gold in the creek bed. All of this property was in possession of the young man. In addition to the property, the father gives his son every tool imaginable with which he could work the land. Along with the tools, he was given an owner s manual, a resource guide that told him how to get the most out of his property. So the young man begins to work the property. He plucks fruit from the trees, plants gardens in the lush, rich soil. He begins panning for gold and mining the hills for diamonds and rubies. He was making new discoveries on his property every single day. But then he begins to get careless. When he gets careless, weeds begin to grow and take over the garden. The trees go without being pruned. His crops begin to fail. And it is all because he has gotten distracted. He doesn t lose his property, but he loses the immediate blessings and benefits of all that was his simply because of a failure to appropriate it. We can say that he forfeits blessing because of NEGLECT. The writer of Hebrews warns believers about the danger of spiritual drifting, which is simply drifting away from intimate fellowship with God. Such spiritual drifting happens for one reason NEGLECT. Neglect to give little attention or respect to; to disregard through carelessness; to leave undone or unattended We frequently hear stories about abused and neglected children. Parents can neglect children. Children can neglect parents. Husbands can neglect wives. Wives can neglect husbands. Then of course, there are instances of where we neglect small things that become big things over time. For instance, we often fail to consider the gradual, cumulative effect of sin in our lives.

2 Illustration In Saint Louis in 1984, an unemployed cleaning woman noticed a few bees buzzing around the attic of her home. Since there were only a few, she made no effort to deal with them. Over the summer the bees continued to fly in and out the attic vent while the woman remained unconcerned, unaware of the growing city of bees. The whole attic became a hive, and the ceiling of the second- floor bedroom finally caved in under the weight of hundreds of pounds of honey and thousands of angry bees. While the woman escaped serious injury, she was unable to repair the damage of her accumulated neglect. Neglect takes a serious toll on our spiritual life. That is precisely what the writer of Hebrews is telling us in these first four verses of this second chapter. The key word in these verses is the word salvation. It is describing what we possess as believers salvation, in all of its fullness, salvation and all that is associated with who we are in Christ. The writer of Hebrews speaks of three things with regard to our salvation: The Greatness of our salvation The Seriousness of our salvation The Fullness of our salvation Specifically, notice that in verse three, he mentions the fact that it is entirely possible that one can neglect so great a salvation. Notice there are three ways that we can neglect our salvation: 1. Careless living leads us to drift (2:1) Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. Believers are warned of the dangers that are associated with carelessness in our personal life. If we are not diligent to give earnest heed to the gospel and the worship of God in our personal life, then it is very easy to drift. Drifting is something that is so easy, something that is so subtle, and all you need to do to drift is to do nothing at all. The writer of Hebrews is offering a word to the drifters. He doesn t want them to just appreciate Jesus Christ; he desires for them to appropriate Jesus Christ. He doesn t want them to be just simply a fan of

3 Jesus Christ; he desires for them to be passionate followers of Jesus Christ. He desires that they know Christ intimately and obey Christ diligently. He issues a call to commitment to not drift from the harbor of salvation and fervent devotion. When something is drifting, it has lost its moorings or anchoring. When we are drifting, we are in danger of being deceived by false teaching: Ephesians 4:14 That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. When we are drifting, we are demonstrating double mindedness: James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. A person who is drifting is moving in an aimless direction. John MacArthur The English explorer, William Edward Parry, once took a crew to the Arctic Ocean. They wanted to go farther north to continue their chartings, so they calculated their location by the stars and started a very difficult and treacherous march north. They walked hour upon hour, and finally, totally exhausted, they stopped. Taking their bearings again from the stars, they discovered that they were farther south than they had been when they started. They had been walking on an ice floe that was moving south faster than they were walking north. How many people are moving around in life and not moving forward, when in fact they are moving away from Him faster than they are supposedly walking toward Him? 2. Stubborn living leads us to disobey (2:2-3a) For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation The point is that if those who have gone before us disobeyed God and reaped what they sowed, what makes us think that we will be any different? If God s Word was seriousness to those who lived in Old Testament times, it is much more seriousness now in light of full and complete revelation.

4 The writer of Hebrews is saying that our salvation is seriousness and not something that we ought to take lightly, not something that we should be flippant about. This is telling us that God s Word then was so serious that for every violation of it, there was an appropriate consequence as a result. Illustration When you break the law, you don t really break the law, for the law breaks you. Illus. of the law of gravity The same thing is true spiritually. When you break God s spiritual, moral law, there is a serious consequence. If God held those in the Old Testament accountable for disregarding His Word, you can rest assured that He will hold this modern day generation responsible for neglecting so great a salvation. This has practical application for believers and unbelievers. The believer who neglects his salvation will experience discipline. God always disciplines those who belong to Him. Hebrews 12:5-8 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons: My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. The correction and loving discipline of God is experienced in the life of a believer who neglects his or her salvation, who stubbornly disobeys his or her Father. Bill Cosby My father would not have been particularly interested in a book about fathering, although he did like to read. One day when he was reading in the living room, my brother and I decided we could play basketball without breaking anything. When I took a shot that redesigned the glass table, my mother came in with a stick and said, "So help me, I'll bust you in half." Without lifting his head from his book, my father said, "Why would you want twice as many?" Growing up, I knew a thing or two about what it meant to get busted!

5 In a much similar way, God is not content to let His children get away with misbehaving. He knows how to bust them! What about the unbeliever? The unbeliever who neglects so great a salvation will experience separation. Acts 13:46 Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. The point is that no one escapes who neglects so great a salvation. 3. Unconcerned living leads us to be disillusioned (2:3b-4) which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy spirit, according to His own will? The writer of Hebrews desires for us to consider just how awesome our salvation really is: Spoken by the Lord Confirmed by those who heard Him God bearing witness with signs, wonders, miracles Gift of the Holy Spirit By the will of God The point is that anyone who is unconcerned with so great a salvation is greatly disillusioned as to what really matters in life. Their vision is clouded, and their eyes are blinded to spiritual realities.