A First Admonition

For the Lord’s Day:  the 16^th of February 2003

 

Hebrews: 2: 1-4

“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.”

 

Introduction:  There has been going around a story for the last twenty-some years or more that when the Sixteenth Amendment was passed, we were really one state short of the necessary votes to be legitimate and legal.  One of the Dakotas is a state that several groups of tax protesters point to as having no in house legislative records of support for that particular amendment, even while being credited for casting the final supportive vote.

 

Now, I’m sure that very many people would love for such a story to be true and with the advent of the internet – this story is all the more popular.  However, I am not one to risk my property and bank accounts on such feeble information.  And since the information in question is being pushed by a strident anti-tax crowd alone – I could not in good conscience encourage anyone to take up the belief without much further proof of wider and authoritative support!

 

So what am I doing advocating the beliefs of an increasing minority report amongst the sad assortment of institutions centered on the Christian testimony?  That is a good question and it is the purpose of our meditation today. 

 

First and foremost in my mind is the more ancient foundation and the incredible amount of facts and multiple recorded testimony that demands a positive verdict concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the multi-millennial providential preparations set forth in the trustworthy Hebrew Old Covenant records where everything to come was predicted centuries before the fact.

 

I have heard it said that there are as many as eighty predictions about Christ in the Old Covenant record.  A few months ago, we went over twenty-seven of them being presented by Tate Antrim at our Thursday evening Bible study.  Even as we worked through the short list that surfaced in his brief survey – another eight or ten come to mind from almost all the members of the study group.

 

In a like manner, during the Nineteenth Century – a prominent English news paper reporter began an initial skeptical survey and study of the evidence.  Before he was done – he became convinced of the truth declared in the scriptures which have been kept pure and undefiled from obvious corruptions these many millennia!

 

You see, whenever we compare the various manuscripts extant in our day with those older still – we have yet to discover an editorial gloss or obvious distortion that would undermine any of the essential doctrines drawn from and taught from the scriptural basis.  Oh yes, there are copying and even printing errors.  One of the first printed English Bibles accidentally left out the commandment against murder and so became known in history as “The Slayer’s Bible”!  Also, we have been able to sort out the various “families” of errors and trace them to Alexandria and other Christian centers and schools which produced the hand written manuscripts of the New Covenant record after the time of Christ.

 

In addition we have also had the LXX translation of the original Hebrew texts to compare with the fabulous treasure trove of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Some of the Essene documents go back almost a century before Christ and they testify that those portions of Hebrew scrolls still readable are in full agreement and testimony with the documents we have to work with today!  Then of course there is the Old Covenant scriptural history of the Jewish scribes.  While their writings after Christ are much less “evangelical” than their ancestors are, nevertheless – it is only their commentaries that explain the meaning that are suspect in our eyes and not the original texts which they revere still.

 

Development:  With all of that said, we can make our first and essential point of the day.  And that point is this:  the scriptural foundation for everything we read and study is as solid as anything and more that you will find in print today anywhere in the world.  We have only to compare the foundational status of our doctrines and records with the incredible and sorry batch of lies, distortions and myths put out by our greatest competitors: the revolutionary evolutionary fanatics whose sole religious purpose is to fabricate a not-religious system of “faith” and life!

We will leave their unrealistic theories aside as unworthy of credible consideration and return our focus upon the testimony of our more certain foundation.  We have just completed a seventeen week detailed study of the person of Christ as outlined in the first chapter of Hebrews.  And yes – you may not have picked up on all of the various points – I have to admit that I missed an awful lot this second time through as well.  But at the very least – consider the huge amount of detail which we have already been through and just as a jury must consider the evidence – I would ask you to accept the overwhelming amount of detailed testimony for the divine nature and stature of Jesus Christ!

 

The book of Hebrews is to the New Covenant almost what the books of Chronicles are to the Old Covenant:  both are something of a final testimony taking in all of the wondrous reports from the beginning of time, and giving a faithful analysis as well as a comprehensive and exhaustive study of what it all meant - that was written before.

 

Our verses for today, John Brown tells us “come in the midst of the discussion of the superiority of Jesus Christ to the angels, which is resumed at the fifth verse.”

 

However, this first admonition in the book of Hebrews as it is called is a necessary challenge of those who have followed his argument thus far.  Okay, he is saying, you have heard seventeen points of evidence proving that Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Triune Creator God is just who and what He claims to be:  God Himself with us!  And not only that, He is by character, person, position and privilege the highest sovereign power in existence!  What do you think of that?

 

John Brown urges us that “to ‘give heed,’ is to apply the mind to a particular subject, to attend to it, to consider it.  It is here opposed to ‘neglecting the great salvation.’  No person can read the Scriptures without observing the stress that is laid on consideration, and the criminality and hazards which are represented as connected with inconsideration.”

 

To a certain extent English Common Law juries are able to determine and process the laws of the land.  In colonial times – the New England juries opposed the excesses of the British Crown.  In the years prior to the American Civil War, northern juries time after time failed by conscience to find those running the underground railroad guilty of sedition against the laws of the United States.

 

Today we have similar problems going on in the Republic – but these juries which are picked to reflect the lowest common denominator of character, intelligence and faithfulness to lawful decorum and process: are undermining the abilities of our system to succeed and remain viable into the future.  My point is simple:  if our contemporary juries are so ignorant and bull-headed to make their own laws by ignoring the facts and evidence in cases coming before them:  are they not more criminal than those who stand before the bar of justice?

 

This is nothing more than John Brown is saying in regards to the doctrines and person of Christ in regards to the most important question to face every single son and daughter of Adam and Eve:  What do you make of Jesus Christ?  Your answer as well as that of every living person has life and death consequences.  If you answer wrong – the Lord will let you have it your way for a time, at least the remainder of this life!  And like Shakespeare’s memorable character Hamlet you are left to wonder:

 

“For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause”

 

Will there be a grand quiet nothingness?  A “Mother Night” as vain men and women might hope?  Or is it the Oriental thought that as long as loving relatives remember us – we have some heavenly or earthy hope.  Once, a suicidal student asked me, if I would remember him when he was gone.  Of course not, I replied – I don’t waste time reflecting on the lives of losers.  And I went on by slamming down a box-cutter on the desk and told him that everyone was sick and tired of hearing his ongoing whining – so he should get on with it or put it aside!  But, I assured him – there would be One who would not forget him and that was the One he should fear the most:  The Creator God.  And since suicide was no way to meet Him face to face – I took back my knife before he could pick it up.  That was the last we heard of such nonsense and he learned to meet his problems up front and became a better person because of my challenge.

 

Application: So may we all become better people in hearing the challenge and admonition of these four earnest verses given to the readers of Hebrews.  And before we close there are several further points that Raymond Brown outlines for our consideration.

 

First: in verse one of our text we must understand that “despite its attractively multiform character and vivid presentation in Scripture, this eternally significant message of Christ and his salvation can still be ignored, dismissed or forgotten.”

 

We all know and love people who have taken one of those three tacks before the wind of the Spirit.  Yes, I am using a sailing term here to illustrate the various ways that humans sail against the obvious wind that would blow them gently yet forcibly home to heaven and eternity.  And we all have to learn that what is a fair wind for us is not considered the same for all.  We can witness until we are blue in the face and we have antagonized someone so deeply that even if they do finally come home it may be with all the greater difficulty because we have been too obnoxious and insistent that they consider the person of Christ whom we love.

 

In those three words of ignorance, dismissal and forgetfulness is described the very frailty of the human condition in coming to Christ reasonably and in a timely manner.

 

Second: in verse two and the first half of three we must understand the authority of the revealed word – even that carried by the angels.  Even by the authority of the angelic witness the guilty were and are punished. “Hughes expresses the warning in these terms: ‘If the breakers of the law did not go unpunished, certainly despisers of the gospel cannot expect to do so.’”

 

It matters not in eternity whether we receive the Word of God from messengers, from Christ or the Holy Spirit: the gospel message in and of itself requires a conscience decision on our part.  We accept it, reject it or forget it as unimportant.  All the author here is saying – is that the invitation, the admonition, the challenge to believe: does indeed come from the very highest authority:  God Himself speaking through the revelationary methods and messengers that He chooses to use.

 

I once saw a church bulletin board along the highway.  It read:  “Looking for a sign from God?  This may be it!”  But for the great majority that sign might as well read “Bridge out ahead!”  Earlier this week, I was getting ready to take a back door shortcut into northern Dublin.  The businessman I was going to visit warned me that the key bridge on Home road was out and was going to be out for another year and a half.  So I took the long way around, and when I drove by the bridge I noticed that the bridge was really and truly out since it was being rebuilt from scratch!  Unfortunately for many people the bridge to the future that they have ignored in the past may not be there when they are finally ready to give their journey the consideration that they should have given it earlier on in life.

 

Third:  Raymond Brown tells us concerning the second half of verse three that “like ourselves, the author of the letter cannot claim actually to have heard Christ preach, but confesses that it was attested to us by those who heard him.  He rejoices in the testimony of eye-witnesses who remember the words and sayings of Christ during his ministry on earth.”  Remember what Jesus said to Thomas?  “Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  (John 20: 29)

 

None of us are in any way, shape or form able to have first hand knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  We must make our decisions on the basis of scriptural authority, the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the encouragement of God’s people who have learned to believe and obey.

 

Fourth and last, verse four assures us that we are not left on our own to consider and understand the implications of the Christian faith.  Raymond Brown again guides us carefully in this consideration:  “The word did not rely solely on human testimony for its reality.  God himself confirmed its veracity by demonstrating it power.  Signs, wonders, miracles and gifts were in abundant evidence; not only to confirm God’s truth but to demonstrate God’s sovereignty.”

 

How often I am saddened at reports of evangelists and witnesses who depend upon the meager authority of their own devotion and powers of persuasion?  I think it takes a special form of chutzpah to presume that we have the abilities of any person of the Trinity in this regard.

 

Certainly, we may all be messengers of a sort to those who are lost, but it is not always our calling to be the agent of change in the hearts of those we love and cherish the most.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit as the Apostle to the Hebrews makes clear in the last words of verse four:  “by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.”

 

Yes, we may certainly use the arguments of the Apostle in this precious book with those who are willing to listen and to learn.  And what a blessing it is for all of use, who have been called by the Spirit to have our foundation for faith so mightily strengthened by the work and witness of the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before.  Herein is the purpose of this wonderful book: to confirm the facts and doctrines of the faith and to challenge us to consider whether or no the Holy Spirit has come upon us to allow us to acknowledge the truth of these things – that we might thereby be comforted and encouraged.

 

And that is my prayer for all of you today: to consider where you are in the matter of the faith and to leave the others to ascertain that for themselves.  Believe the promises of the scriptures that all whom God is calling into the Kingdom – they will hear His voice within the providence of His eternal will.  Amen.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

PREACHING RESOURCES

 

Brown, John.  A Geneva Series Commentary: Hebrews.

Brown, Raymond.  The Bible Speaks Today: The Message of Hebrews.

Bruce, F.F. The Epistle to the Hebrews.

Owen, John:  Commentary on Book of Hebrews.

Shakespeare, William.  Hamlet: Prince of Denmark.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Permission granted to redistribute unedited versions with this notice.

http://www.tulip.org/Heb/Heb030.htm

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe go to:  http://www.tulip.org/trf-list/