“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.” (Hebrews ii. 1.)
THE Apostle in the previous chapter shows the glory which belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour of perishing sinners. In comparing Him with angels he says: “For unto which of the angels said He at any time, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee; and again, I will be to Him a father, and He shall be to me a Son.” It is to this glorious One and to what He has accomplished that our attention is drawn throughout this epistle.
In drawing attention particularly to the first verse of the second chapter, we may notice—
- The things which we have heard;
- The danger of letting them slip from us; and
- The exhortation, to give the more earnest heed to them.
I. The things which we have heard:
(a) The things which have come to us from God as given by the inspired penmen both in the Old and New Testaments. That is a complete revelation of the mind and will of God which He has been pleased to bestow upon men that they might be saved. It is so complete that nothing can be added to it or taken from it. (b) In that complete revelation there is made known to us the way of salvation having its source in the infinite love and mercy of God as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. That salvation which was so necessary for the deliverance of lost and ruined sinners of our race from sin and its consequences, reveals as nowhere else in God’s dealings with sinners what is the terrible consequence of sin. In the experience of our first parents the consequence of their sin was very manifest to them, and the same is true of every sinner either in mercy or in judgment. (1.) We have heard how sin entered into the world by the disobedience of our first parents in eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of which God had said to them: “Thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The temptation with which man was tempted was cunningly presented to him by the serpent. His fall and the consequent misery for himself and his race are truths with which we have been familiar from childhood, taught us from the Bible and Shorter Catechism by our parents. We, however, deem it very necessary to keep these solemn truths before our hearers, as almost all professing Christians in our day have let them slip from them, and have come to consider them as if they were fables. They have thus lost what God gave them to keep, and it is not likely that they will get it back again. Let us seek in the strength of grace to know the greatest value of these truths that we may keep them to the end of our life in this world. It is evident that on account of their sin every child of Adam is born in sin. We have heard that all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. In hearing this aspect of the same truth, there is declared to us our personal sin and guilt. Who among us can say that he has not hated God and his neighbour? God calls upon us to love Him and to love our neighbour also. You may have many things against your neighbour for which you are displeased with him, but you are not allowed to hate him. Love even your enemies is the command given by the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it true of you that you are indifferent to the salvation of your most precious soul; and if so that is a great sin. “And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” The things of God are of so little account in these days that many deny them altogether; while many others live contentedly under the power of unbelief. These things, however, we have heard that we might know what an evil thing sin is, and that we might escape from it and its consequences to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is lifted up in the gospel as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness; (2.) We must now consider how in this wonderful revelation of God this is made known to us that God did not leave all mankind to perish in their sins; but that He purposed to save a number which no man can number of our race. It is of the greatest importance for ourselves and our children that we should hear of Him who came to seek and to save that which was lost. To a large extent now the Presbyterian churches have substituted what is called Christmas and Easter in place of declaring the truths of the gospel. It is very clear that the influence of the Man of Sin is seen to-day to an alarming extent in the revival of Christmas and Easter in this land of ours. The same influence is at work in the desecration of God’s holy day. Who, then, is the one who came to save sinners? The answer is given by the Apostle in the previous chapter when he says: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.” We have here brought before us what can only be spoken of as the greatest of all mysteries. The Eternal Son of God became man, and continued what He had been from all eternity. In assuming our nature, free from sin, and yet with sin imputed to Him, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, the accursed death of the Cross. What depths of humility and what depths of suffering as He took the place of guilty sinners He had to pass through before He cried on the Cross of Calvary, “It is finished.” It was to accomplish the salvation of sinners He was manifested. He left nothing of this work unfinished, but rendered complete obedience to God’s holy law, and perfect satisfaction to justice. Have we not heard these solemn truths declared to us so plainly that we must have been impressed by them, if not convinced of their awful reality. It was necessary for the salvation of sinners that this One would deliver them from death in its threefold aspect. It was for this purpose He descended into the grave, and by His resurrection on the third day He delivered His people from temporal death and the grave. It is told of two Christians who met that one asked the other, “What news have you to-day?” “I have good news,” the other answered, “Christ died for sinners.” The other replied: “I have better news than that; He rose again from the dead.” It is indeed good news to the sinner under a sense of sin, guilt and wrath that He died to take away sin, and that He rose again and that He entered into heaven—”Now to appear in the presence of God for us.” It is written of Him that He ascended on high receiving gifts for men, yea for the rebellious. How evident this appeared in the experience of the Church on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given as the fruit of His work and ascension. Have we not heard how Jews and Gentiles, by the work of the blessed Spirit in their souls, were brought from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. This is our day of the same precious opportunities, and have we no desire to become true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ? (3.) The necessity of the new birth that we might partake of the blessings of the gospel has been declared to us. “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” The real and enduring work of the Holy Ghost in the souls of sinners, with its consequent fruit in the life of the believer, has been faithfully declared to us in the Free Presbyterian Church by messengers sent to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. We have thus heard the gospel of God’s grace in its purity from our infancy, and let us be assured as our privileges are great our responsibility and accountability will be correspondingly great. “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” (4.) The form of worship the Lord delivered to His Church by the instrumentality of the Apostles we have to-day in the Free Presbyterian Church. We cannot be too thankful to the Lord for His great blessing. We refuse to have anything in the worship of God but what the Lord has commanded. I am not saying that we are attaining to that measure of faith in worshipping the living and true God which was attained by our forefathers in the days of Revs. John Kennedy, Lachlan MacKenzie, Dr. Macdonald, Ferintosh, and others. In the measure, however, in which the Spirit is given there is present in our approaches to His holy throne the exercise of repentance, faith, love and new obedience. They are in our midst who know in their experience the significance of the cry, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” and who at times can say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We may notice here that we have the sacraments of the New Testament Church as they were delivered by the Lord to His Apostles. The table of the Lord in our midst is only for true believers. As was required by the Church of God in her best days in the world, that all her members must walk in the light of the Word of God, so we seek to follow in the same path. The exercise of discipline was necessary in every age in the Church, and must be continued among us if we are to be faithful in adhering to the Word of God. Let us, however, rather pray for those who refuse to submit to the discipline of the Church, for it is the Lord alone who can give repentance and faith. When the Lord will pour upon men the spirit of repentance, they will be humbled in the dust, confessing and forsaking their sins. We firmly believe that the Lord will bless our Church if we faithfully cleave to His precious Word. Let us not shun doing so because of persecution and suffering which we must endure, but let us beware of the dangers to which we are exposed in an evil generation of letting these precious truths slip from us.
II. We now desire to bring before you a little in connection with “letting them slip.”
The meaning of the word used in the Greek is “to run out,” as in leaking vessels. (1.) The idea seems to be that letting slip may begin in what has often been termed matters of little consequence. This may be seen in the case of the Free Church between 1843 and 1893. That Church continued for a time in real earnest, maintaining the truth of the gospel, but how quick was the downfall from that position. It was in the words of our text—letting slip the truths for which men had suffered the loss of all earthly comforts. We are to-day in the same position which the Church held in 1843—we are the Free Church of 1843, both in our profession and our practice, and we have held this historical position in Scotland for the last forty-five years. As far as our profession and practice are concerned we have added nothing to that testimony, nor taken anything from it. (2.) When men care little what will become of the pins of the Tabernacle, it is only a matter of time until the greater things will share the same fate as the lesser things. If we knew the signs of the times, we have ample demonstration of this fact before our eyes in Scotland to-day. What a sad spectacle the face of Scotland presents religiously now, when compared to what it was eighty years ago. There is a remnant left in our land, but the great majority are left to what they desired. We are in danger from without—from the religion that is only in name. If we give the least place to it in our minds as being of God, we have already begun to let slip from us the truths of the gospel. It will only be a matter of time until we find ourselves at home where the uninspired hymns and organs are used in the worship of God. If we are in danger from without, we are much more so from within. It is not the destruction of one here and there of those who profess the truth in the Free Presbyterian Church Satan desires, but to have the testimony of the Church overthrown altogether. It is my firm conviction that Satan will not rest using every influence he can against us until he finds himself defeated by the power of the truth working in our midst. If we in the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ seek to walk humbly and wholly in dependence upon Him, we shall overcome sin and Satan in ourselves, and within our borders as a Church. We live in an evil age and we need constant supplies of grace if we are to continue to the end. Let us be frequently at the throne of grace pleading for ourselves and our Church, “lest at any time”—whether it is a time of peace or trials of various kinds—”we should let them slip.”
III. I desire in the third and last place to notice the exhortation—”therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard.”
(1) The believers to whom the Apostle wrote this epistle had given heed to the message of the gospel and were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. (2.) He exhorts them to give the more earnest heed by laying to heart the greatness of the message which they had received. It was not an ordinary message, but the greatest message that heaven could send them. The blessings which came to them were of such a nature that they must be willing to part with every worldly advantage, even with life itself, rather than come short of the full possession of the blessings of the gospel. They had not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin, although many of the saints of God resisted in their own day even unto blood. (3.) They are exhorted by being reminded of the promise given to others of entering into His rest, but who entered not in because of unbelief. The awful condition of unbelievers, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birth-right, and who found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears, is part of the exhortation used to bring the Hebrews to a realisation of what the position is of those who forsake the truth. (4.) The need of faith and patience, and how if both have their proper exercise they shall overcome many difficulties, is shown by the example of others who through faith and patience inherit the promises. There is finally the blessed state of those who have overcome and entered into possession of heaven itself. It is as necessary in our case that we should give heed to the things we have heard by believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We are also exhorted to give the more earnest heed to these things. Let us seek in the strength of grace to know them, and to value them as the best of all treasures, so that we will have the best portion in time and throughout eternity. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” (John xiii. 17.)