Notes of a Sermon

By REV. NEIL MACINTYRE.

“How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. ii. 3).

THESE are most solemn words. The Apostle is drawing a distinction between the privileges and advantages they had under the gospel, compared with the privileges they had under the legal dispensation and consequently their responsibility and condemnation would be greater. So he puts the question “How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation.”

God at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. The legal dispensation under which they were had glory but the glory of the gospel dispensation far exceeds it. “The law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1-17). So in beginning of this chapter the Apostle presses upon them that they ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which they heard lest at any time they should let them slip.” He points the awful consequences of an indifferent attitude towards the gospel. He points out what befell those who refused to listen to the words spoken by angels. “How shall we escape if we neglect this great salvation.” We shall notice I. This great Salvation. What makes it great. II. The question asked regarding it. “How shall we escape if we neglect it?”

I. This great Salvation, and what makes it great.

1. It is great because of the Person who provided it. “It was wisdom who dealt with prudence that found out this witty invention.” Neither man nor angels could find out a way by which man could be saved and the claims of God’s law and justice conserved. Were it not that God intervened man would be as lost and hopeless as devils but God intervened on behalf of man. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”

God is great in all things but man is small and helpless. He can only use the material God puts at his disposal. He can create nothing, not even a fly or a blade of grass. Now if God is great in the smallest things how great must He be in the greatest of all things, the salvation of lost, guilty men. This is the most wonderful thing ever heard of that God could be just and the justifier of the ungodly.

1. This salvation is great because of the Person who wrought it out. The eternal Son of God in our nature. In the first chapter He is described as the eternal Son, the heir of all things by whom also He created the worlds.” But this glorious Person became incarnate. The salvation is therefore great because of the Person who wrought it out but it is also great because of His humiliation and sufferings. In working out this great salvation He had to humble Himself. To veil His glory to take the form of a servant and to be found in fashion as a man, and made under the law. The Father as judge exacted of Him all that the law demanded of His people. The first Adam’s obedience was only from day to day and when he sinned he had nothing to fall back on. He immediately came under sentence of death. But the glorious Person “by one sacrifice forever perfected them that are sanctified.” Not only that He satisfied forever the claims of the law but He satisfied the claims of justice in laying down His life for His people. His people were under the curse of the law which demanded of them perfect obedience but they were also under sentence of death. But He laid down His life on their behalf. “Who delivered us,” says Paul, “from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us” (2 Cor. 1-10).

2. This salvation is great because of the Person who applies it. The Holy Spirit. The salvation may be presented and offered to sinners in the gospel but until the Holy Spirit will make the sinner able and willing to accept of it he will reject it. But “when He (the Spirit) is come He will convince the world of sin of righteousness and judgment.” When the sinner is awakened to realise his lost, ruined state no creature can give him any hope or comfort but when the Spirit reveals Christ to him and enables him to accept of Him, he sees that Salvation as great that should he have a thousand souls he sees enough in this salvation. He sees enough for the whole world if they would only accept of Him.

It is the Spirit that leads and comforts God’s people in the world and will finally bring them to glory without spot or wrinkle.

1. This salvation is great in comparison with the ceremonial law. The ceremonial law was certainly great. It was appointed by God. There were many things designed in it to bring this “Great Salvation” before them. “It was the shadow of good things to come.” But it could not take away sin nor make the comers there unto perfect as pertaining to the conscience” (Heb. 9, 9). “For then would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers once purged should have no more consciences of sins” (Heb. 10, 2). All the sacrifices offered under the law, and they were innumerable could not take away sin, but Christ by one sacrifice forever perfects them that are sanctified. It is a “great salvation.”

2. This salvation is great because of its length, breadth, depth and height.

(1) If we take its length, it stretches back to the beginning of time. Abel was made partaker of it. So was Noah, Lot, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and countless number of others under the old dispensa-

tion but it is to-day as “great” in the world as ever. It is no doubt despised and rejected by most but that does not take away its greatness. It will continue great in the world until all whom God purposed to save will be brought in.

(2) It is great because of its breadth. It is not confined to one place or nation. The day is coming when His knowledge shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11, 9). The last account we saw was that there are about 65,800,000 people who are still without the knowledge of this “great Salvation, yet the day is coming when the whole earth shall be filled with His knowledge. It was David’s prayer and ought to be ours that the whole earth be filled with His glory” (Ps. 72, 19).

(3) If we take its depth it goes down to the lowest and most degraded sinner. It could descend to wicked Manasseh. He was carried captive to Babylon and when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God and the Lord heard him and brought again to Jerusalem. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God” (2 Chronicles 33, 12). It descended to Saul the persecutor and made him a great preacher of the Cross of Christ. It made Mary Magdalene a virtuous woman. There is none so low but it can reach. Though our sins be as scarlet He can reach us.

(4) If we take the height of it. Not only that it stretches from the beginning to the end of time but it goes into eternity and will be great there forever and ever. The song of the redeemed will be forever praising God for this “great Salvation.” Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins will be the theme of their song forever.

1. It is great because of the wonderful change it makes in the life and conduct of the people to whom it comes. If we take the history of this land before this “great Salvation” came to us. We were a wild barbarous idolatrous people. We boast of our culture and civilisation. What made us to differ from other nations? It was this “great Salvation.” If we take the history of the South Sea Islanders they were wild cannibals but whenever this “great Salvation” came to them and accepted their conduct was completely changed.

Take the individual who accepts it what a change it will make.

The drunkard, the swearer, the adulterer and Sabbath desecrator are changed and they become virtuous persons. Paul confessed that he was blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but this “great Salvation” turned him to be the greatest preacher of the gospel. It will turn the vulture to be a dove and the lion to be a lamb.

If we take the extraordinary change it produces in the case of the person who accepts it. Man is an enemy to God under condemnation, but whenever he accepts of this “great Salvation” he is set free and made an heir of God and joint heir with Christ. “No condemnation.” But not only that his state is changed but his corrupt nature will be changed so that at last he will be presented soul and body holy and unblamable before the Father in glory. What a wonderful Salvation.

It is great because of its freeness. It is “without money or price.” If it were to be bought by anything the sinner might do he might well despair of ever acquiring it. It is so valuable that all the riches of the world could not purchase it. But it is to be had freely.

“Without money and without price.” We buy worldly pleasures and pay dearly for them, but the pleasures of this world are nothing but bubbles and vapour, that will soon vanish and leave you more miserable and empty than ever. But this great and free Salvation will put the sinner in possession of an “inheritance incorruptable and undefiled and that fadeth not away” (I Peter 1, 4).

It is great because it is suitable to our case and disease. There is no one medicine of men that is suitable for all diseases. But this Salvation is suitable for all whether we be rich or poor, young or old, sick or healthy, good or bad this salvation is suitable for all. Now some poor sinner might be ready to say my heart is so hard and the Word has no effect on me. “Come,” says the Author of this Salvation, “I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezek. 11, 19).

Another poor sinner might say I am guilty of sins which no one knows but myself and God. “Come,” says this Person, “now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow” (Isa. 1, 18).

Another might say I have despised this great salvation and I fear my day of grace is gone. To such we would say remember the thief on the cross who all his lifetime despised this great Salvation. But he cried and was heard. “Remember me when Thou comest unto Thy Kingdom. To-day thou shalt be within paradise.”

Take the awakened sinner, he finds all the Word of God, law and gospel against him but Christ says to him come and I will in no wise cast you off. If we take the child of God who finds his corruptions so strong and the enemy so subtle to whom can he go? No hope or refuge but applying daily to this “Great Salvation.” None perish that trust in Him.

II. The question asked “How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation.”

There is no answer given for the answer is implied in the question.

1. Devils do not neglect this “great Salvation” because it was never offered to them. It is only offered to sinners of Adam’s race.

The neglecting and rejection of this Salvation is the greatest sin of which man is guilty. “This is the condemnation that light came into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil” (John 3, 19).

1. How do men neglect this “great Salvation.” To use an illustration.

(a) If one were seriously ill and the doctor prescribed a certain medicine and told the patient if he would take it it would cure him but if he would not take it he would certainly die. The patient took the medicine from the doctor’s hand and laid it on the table but

never tasted it. What would be the result? He would die. Now there are many and outwardly they are most circumspect in their outward conduct but neglect this “great Salvation.” What will be the result? They shall die eternally.

(b) Or let us take another case. One may take the bottle of medicine from the doctor’s hand but they think they must mix it with some concoction of their own. The result would be that they would die. Such will be the case of those who profess religion but who go about to establish their own righteousness and will not submit to the righteousness of God” (Rom 10, 3. They shall die.

(c) If we take the case of another person. He took the bottle of medicine and dashed it to the ground. Now there are many in our day and instead of accepting God’s “great Salvation” they reject it and deny it. Such as Infidels and Atheists and others. What will be the result? They shall die.

Now we are so ready to excuse ourselves for rejecting this Salvation and lay the blame on this, that and the other thing but our excuses will not stand. God is freely offering this “great Salvation” to us. “Unto you O men I call and my voice is to the sons of man” (Prov. 8, 4). God is calling in His Word and offering this great Salvation and the rejection of it will be greatest condemnation. How shall we escape if we neglect and refuse it.