I would like to invite you this morning to God's Word in Hebrews chapter 1. While we're still standing like that, we will read Hebrews chapter 2. Sorry, not chapter 1, but chapter 2, verses 1 to 4 together. And as we read through this, we're going to try and answer the question, how shall we escape? How shall we escape? That's the question this Hebrew writer would want us answer this morning. So I will read from the NASB version, as you can follow in your translations. Hebrews 2, verse 1. For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard. God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders, and by various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will. Let's pray together. Lord, this is your word. We were able to sing this morning about Christ, exalted. We invited each other this morning to behold our king seated on his throne, Nothing and no one can compare to him. And Lord, as we come to preach about this king of glory, the son of God, the final word of God, will you please help us to hear him? Help us, O God, to submit ourselves this morning to Christ alone. And it is in his name I pray. Amen. You may be seated. If you have ever had a chance to go through the book of Hebrews, you would notice that Hebrews is a book of comparisons. There are many comparisons in this book, and these comparisons are given by the writer of Hebrews in order to persuade his audience to move to Jesus Christ. He compares Jesus with what the Jews held so dear. Here in chapter one, verse one, we are told about long ago in many times and many ways, God spoke to the fathers, the Hebrew fathers. and says that in these last days he has spoken to us through his son. You can already see the contrast there. Going down to verse four, the writer tells us that Jesus is better than the angels. Coming to chapter three, you would see the writer of Hebrews convincing and trying to persuade these Hebrews that Jesus is better than Moses. He is better than the rest that Joshua has given to the Israelites. In chapter 5 we see that he is better than the priests who came in numbers who had to intercede for the Jews but they were cut by death. But Jesus continues forever and he is better. And he gets to chapter seven and eight, even nine, we are told that Jesus' covenant, the new covenant that he inaugurated with his own blood is better than the old covenant. The right of Hebrews brings or strikes those comparisons so that these Jews will get to understand that something better than what they held to in the Old Testament has come. They have lived under the shadows of the Old Testament that were always anticipating the coming of the Messiah. And now that He has arrived, the writer of Hebrews says, this is time to move to Him. Chapter 6, verse 1, move to Jesus Christ. Let us now move to Him. He calls this book A brief exhortation, a brief word of exhortation in Hebrews 13 verse 22. And he does that because as you look at the structure of Hebrews you would notice that the writer of Hebrews alternates between exposition and exhortation. He would give an exposition about Christ and he would exhort the listeners to go to him. Here in Hebrews chapter 2, verse 1 to 4, we come to one of the exhortations that the writer gives. But these exhortations also come with warnings. We have a warning after warning in the book of Hebrews, especially to those who would not hear and move to Jesus Christ. This passage is one of the warning passages found in this book, and the warning is issued to people like you and I who are in the church. Note that the writer of Hebrews is not writing to people outside the church, but he writes to people who sit in the pews of the church, within the church. So that's us, and we are to pay attention this morning as God speaks through his word. What is his concern? The writer of Hebrews was concerned that there are people who sit under God's Word, listening to God's clear message preached, and yet remain hardened in their hearts. And because of this, of his pastoral heart, he issues a warning, not with a desire to condemn, but with a desire to alert his readers of the severe judgment that will come upon those who know the truth and ignore it. And this, my brothers and sisters, is humanity's greatest problems. Doesn't matter whether you are in the U.S. or you come from Africa or you're in Asia or wherever you are, the humanity's greatest problem is ignorance of God's truth. In the words of the Hebrew writer, there is a tendency in the church for people to pay no closer attention to the truth of the gospel, a tendency to drift from the truth they have heard, a tendency to neglect the important truth. Every church has this serious problem. What makes this the greatest concern for the writer is that our lives and our destiny depends on it. Life and death depend on what we do with the truth that we hear. What we do with the gospel we hear can either result in tragic judgment or in a blessed rest. Those are the two outcomes. So the writer of Hebrews is concerned about the eternal outcome of neglecting Christ's salvation. He is concerned about people who hear the message of the gospel and are convinced of its truth, meaning they know that this is true, but still do not pay closer attention to it. And this problem was persistent. We know this from the reading of Hebrews chapter 5 verses 11 to 12 where the writer says concerning whom and he refers to Melchizedek who happens to be the type of Jesus Christ. He says concerning Melchizedek we have much to say and it is hard to explain. Not that the writer does not understand the subject. It is not hard for the writer to tell them about Melchizedek and how he points to Jesus Christ. But the difficulty is with the people. He says, it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. These basic principles are the ABCs. These are the Old Testament writings that have always pointed to Jesus Christ. And the writer of Hebrews has done so well to show them that Moses was not the ultimate, but he was looking to someone who is to come. The rest that Joshua gave to his people is not the ultimate, but there is still remain rest. What the fathers had through the visions of the Thummim and the Urim was not the ultimate because God would finally speak in his sight. Those were just shadows. The substance and the reality is in Jesus Christ. Those are the basic oracles, the basic principles, the ABCs pointing to Jesus. What do they do? They keep regressing, they keep going back to the Old Testament instead of moving to Jesus Christ. He says you have become dull of hearing. So the right of Hebrews is correct to be alarmed. by the state of this dull of hearing people. Not only there can be no spiritual progress if people ignore the gospel, but more than spiritual stagnation or regression, failure to pay attention to what you have had results in drifting from the truth. And this was the writer's concern in Hebrews 2 verse 1. Listen to what he says again in Hebrews 2 verse 1. Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift from it. The idea is that of a ship drifting away from the intended harbor because of a pilot not paying attention. The pilot neglecting the harbor of salvation. So the exhortation is followed by a warning in verse three. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Terrible, unpleasant, and tragic will be the consequences of neglecting the salvation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And hear the warning, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Help us to identify people whom the writer of Hebrews is concerned about. The truth is we all attend church. It has become part of our culture, isn't it? It's Sunday, we have to go to church because that's what our families do. That's what our parents have done over the years. We come to church, we all hear the message of the gospel clearly preached. But what we do with that message is consequential. It determines your destiny. So if that's the case, we can ascertain from this verse that although the writer identifies himself with his audience by using the pronoun we and us, he is not warning those who have paid attention to the message of salvation. Why would he warn those who have already paid attention? That's not his concern. His concern are not those who paid attention because they have done well to receive the message of the gospel, appropriated it by faith and trusted Jesus Christ. That's not the people he's concerned about here. Who is he concerned about? I would also submit that he's not so much concerned about those who have not heard, those who are outside. So we rule that out. but his concern are people who hear it over and over again. And I stand before you certain that this group is present here this morning, those who have had the message of Jesus Christ. These are people who have had the message of salvation clearly and many times, but have not turned to God by faith to be saved. You are here this morning. You know the truth. You know that Christ died to pay the penalty for your own sins on the cross. You know that he rose from the dead to make you right with God. You know that he is the only way and the only truth and the only life. Yet you still neglect such a great salvation. A salvation that is far important than any other offer you have ever received in this life. This message, this exhortation, this warning is for you. And I want to urge you, don't live again with God's judgment still hanging over you. The writer of Hebrews says today, Hebrews 3.14, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Pay attention to the message of the gospel of salvation. And perhaps you may be sitting here this morning and you say, but I've never had this message. I don't know what you are talking about. Well, this is what I will do for you. Before I give you two reasons why you must pay close attention to what you have heard, let me give you the message of the gospel so that you don't leave here with any excuse today. What is the message of the gospel? Well, it starts with the Lord Jesus Christ. It starts with Jesus Christ having to come into this world as we have heard from Philippians chapter two this morning. He had to empty himself. He had to take on the form of a servant. He had to take on the body like our bodies. The question is why? Why does Jesus Christ have to go through all that? Why does he have to leave fellowship with the Father in heaven to come into this world? He does so because we have a problem. We are separated with God. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. The Bible also tells us that the wrath of God hangs over every sinner who suppresses the truth of God in his or her unrighteousness. And this has been the message from the Old Testament. From the very beginning, God has told man that he is not right with him and he cannot do anything about it in his own power and strength. The only thing that man deserves is judgment and God is right to judge us all and send us into the lake of fire. That's the bad news, isn't it? That we are not right with God. No, not even one is right with God. All have gone their own ways. All have chosen their own ways. We are not aligned with God and we can never align ourselves with God. Any choice we make in this fallen world is a choice against God and His holiness. And that provokes His judgment. And that's why we need Jesus Christ. And God has been so gracious to make a way for us to Him. He has given us the way in Christ Jesus, who came into this world proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, calling man to change and to tend to Him. He is the mediator of a new covenant. Everyone who would call upon the name of Jesus, the Bible says, will be saved. How and why? Because Jesus Christ became a substitute for us. God made him who knew no sin to be seen on our behalf so that we who trust in him and put our faith in him would become the righteousness of God in him. The only way we can be made right with God is through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who satisfied God. And God was satisfied by the death of Jesus Christ. Redemption is found only in Christ who died. That's the reason God speaks to us today through His Son. And this is the message the writer of Hebrews says we must pay closer attention to. Now you have heard, you have no excuse. Now we're going to look at the two reasons why we need to pay closer attention to that message. The first reason is this. We must pay much closer attention because of the divine speaker. We must pay closer attention to Jesus Christ because of the divine speaker. And this we find in chapter 1 of the Rite of Hebrews. And we need to start there because of that first word in our passage this morning, Hebrews 2, for this reason, or therefore. Do you see that in your Bibles? For this reason, Hebrews chapter 2 verse 1. That reason is given back in chapter 1. For what reason, we may ask the writer of Hebrews. Well, the reason is found in chapter one. Because of the identity of Jesus, we cannot afford to neglect his message. So you ask, who is Jesus? Why is it so important that I pay closer attention to this message? Who is this Jesus who should be the cause for me listening to this message? He is God's son. He is God's final word. God appointed him as an heir for all things. Or heir of all things in chapter 1 verse 2. God created the world through Jesus in verse 2. He is the radiance of the glory of God in verse 3. And know that that radiance is not like the moon reflecting the sun, but it is the heat that comes from Jesus Christ directly to us because he is the sun. The radiance, the exact imprint or the exact representation of God. You see Jesus, you see God. This Jesus upholds the universe by the power, by the word of his power, meaning that whatever Jesus says, it is powerful. He made purification for sins, verse 3. He sacrificed himself for us. And the Bible tells us in verse 3 of Hebrews 1, he is sitting at the right hand of the majesty on high. He is the king on his throne and he reigns. Behold our king seated on his throne. Come and adore him. This is the king we are to worship. He is much superior to angels in verse 4. He inherited the more excellent name than the angels in verses 4 to 7. He is the ruler who hates wickedness and loves righteousness in verses 8 and 9. He does not change in verses 10 to 12. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is seated at the right hand of God waiting for his enemies to become his footstool in verse 13. All that to say we must listen to him. I want you to note this as you go through chapter one, especially from verse five. Notice that God the Father gives testimony about His Son in those verses. These are not the words of the Hebrew writer, but these are the words of God exalting His Son, just showcasing His Son, showing us that He delights in this Son. That's the reason we are to listen to Jesus Christ. So the first reason we are to pay attention is based on the superiority of Christ. The comparison made in chapter 1 verse 4 that Jesus, the God-man, is much superior to angels should cause us to question why would people listen to lesser messages and lesser messengers if Christ who is superior, who came here as a superior messenger and with a superior message is here? Why would people still listen to the lesser messengers? Why would you go to angels if Jesus is here? Why would you run to Moses if Jesus is here? Why would you go back to the old covenant if the new covenant is here? And that is our problem. We choose other things over Christ, don't we? We hold on to our traditions because we know when Jesus comes, he beats you, die to certain things. Our problem is we want our things. I cannot stand to lose my family. I cannot stand to lose the things that I've worked for. I cannot stand to lose my job for Jesus Christ. That's what holds us back. That's the problem in this passage. But the writer of Hebrews says, look, Jesus is much better. He is greater. He is superior. Come to him and find rest. So we must listen to Jesus Christ because he is the divine speaker. But that's not all that we have. The next reason we have, and this is where I want us to spend the remainder of our time on, is that we must pay much closer attention because of the inescapable judgment. Because of the inescapable judgment, we find this in verses 2 to 4 of our passage, Hebrews 2. The writer of Hebrews says in verse 2, If the word spoken through angels proved unalterable and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Let's stop there and think about that question. Brothers and sisters, that is a question. The writer is asking there, how shall we escape? The answer is by no other means shall we free ourselves from God's judgment. No amount of works or good deeds that we try to bring before God will ever make us right with God. How shall we escape? By no other means shall we free ourselves from his judgment. Now, what makes this escaping possible is that the reliability of the Old Testament guarantees God's judgment. Look at the reliability of the Old Testament for us to learn from that. The message declared by angels proved to be reliable as we see it here. The message declared by the angels is the Old Testament law. It was given by the angels. The writer of Hebrews, in connection with his theology in chapter one, would compare the message declared by angels with that declared by the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says here, every transgression or disobedience in the Old Testament law received a just penalty. Every time people transgressed, the Lord would judge them, even by death. That's how serious it was to disobey the Old Testament. Those who transgressed did so intentionally, being cautiously aware that they are overstepping the bounds of the law. And those who disobeyed did so willingly, refusing to listen to the prescripts of the law. As a result, they received a just recompense from the just and holy God. So the writer of Hebrews says, therefore, if the lesser message of the Old Testament law brought such punishment to those who willingly sinned against the law giver, how do you think you will escape if you neglect the message of the one superior to the angels? The Lord Jesus Christ himself. Not only is the reliability of the Old Testament guaranteeing judgment, but also the neglect of the gospel guarantees God's judgment. Verse 3 again, if we neglect a salvation, if we care less about this salvation, such a great, important, and mighty salvation, And similar to the Old Testament Jews who willfully transgressed and disobeyed God's law, the New Testament Jews neglected the message of the gospel. This warning, therefore, is for those who come to church gathering and hear the message of salvation day in and day out without responding to its call to repent and trust in Jesus Christ for eternal life. Such people neglect the great and important message of the gospel and such people will not escape. Now I'm going to draw your attention again to the question. I fear that we often go so quick through this question and never get time to answer it. Listen to the question in verse three again. The question is how? How do you think you will escape? Do you have any means of escape? In other words, what are you banking on if you neglect Christ's call to salvation? How else do you think you will be saved? What are you banking on if you choose to crucify Christ again? with your willful sin. You see in Hebrews 10.26, the writer of Hebrews warns, for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. He goes on to say in verses 28 to 29, anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God? and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the spirit of grace." And verse 31 says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. How then shall we escape? The answer is one. Only through Jesus can we escape. Only through Jesus Christ can we escape. But if we neglect Him, if we neglect so great a salvation that He brought, there is no way of escape. From the very beginning, Jesus declared the message of salvation and the message of deliverance, inviting everyone who would hear to turn to him in order to be saved. So this is what makes salvation so great and why it should not be neglected. It was declared by the Lord himself. In contrast to the message declared by angels, this is so great a message that we cannot afford to neglect because neglecting it would lead into eternal judgment. This message we are told was attested or confirmed to us by those who heard. Human testimony of the Apostles affirmed this message. God's testimony working with the Apostles, while God also at the same time bearing witness by signs and wonders and various miracles, by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, people seeing God at work. How can we neglect it? if God has made this message so clear to us. So what is our application from this text then? Well, this is what we need to take. This passage calls us to a personal commitment to the message of salvation, lest we drift from it into hell to experience eternal judgment. And hell, my brothers and sisters, is real. It's not imaginary, it is real. God has prepared it for those who neglect Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. There's a severe punishment for those who will neglect the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And those of you here who come to church Sunday in, Sunday out to hear the gospel but only to neglect it will receive a much severe judgment. It is this word that is going to testify against us before God one day. So your only hope therefore is to pay attention to the message of Jesus. He became the scapegoat so that you can escape. Jesus had to take the wrath of God. He had to bear the wrath of God in himself on that cross on Calvary. when he had to be separated from his father because of our sin so that you and I could have a way back to God himself. And the Bible says this, this is the good news. All who trust him will be saved from the judgment of the holy God. I pray that this will be you this morning if you don't know him. that you will turn to Jesus Christ, that you will receive him as your Lord and Savior. Brothers, this matters for eternity. If you don't turn and trust him, you will be forever separated with this God. So I invite you today not to neglect this great salvation of Jesus Christ. It is attested by Christ, it is preached by him and it is much better than the message that the angels brought. They were pointing to him by the way and he is here and we are called to trust him as our savior. Let's pray together.