have warnings. And these five warnings, if you have your Bible, I'm trying to do this in a little pamphlet next time, but Hebrews chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 is one of the first warnings of the five. Now, when he talks about Hebrews, he talks about the preacher. You hear it in the sense that the person has a preacher. But in Hebrews chapter 2, the first warning that comes in about the danger of neglecting salvation. And you can mark it down as the emphasis of being able to hear him. The second one is in chapter 4, verses 1 through 13 is the second warning that's in Hebrews. The third warning is in Hebrews chapter 6, verses 9 through 20. It talks about the safeguards against falling away. And then as you move on to the fourth warning, I'm walking through it with you here. You'll find it in Hebrews chapter 10, verses 26 to 39. You might want to read these as we go along. And then the last warning that is similar to the first warning of being able to hear the warning is in Hebrews chapter 12, verses 25 to 29. Amen. Today I start off this series of belonging, or holding on. The question is, is seeing really believing? Is seeing really believing? Every one of us, if you're able to stand this morning with us for the reading of the Word of God, in Hebrews chapter 2, verses 1-4, will you stand with us this morning? Therefore, referring back to all about Jesus, what we read in chapter one, he said, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. It's talking about as if a ring was to slip off your finger. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast in every transgression and disobedience, received a just recompense of reward. In verse three, this is the question. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. And lastly, in verse four of this first warning about salvation of neglected. God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders, and with diamonds, miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. You may be seated. Father, we pray this morning, we thank you for the communion of the word of God. With us, Lord, we're reminded of ourselves of how complacent that we get sometimes. Lord, and faith that we begin to realize that we're drifting in, away from the Word of God, and that is, Lord, when we don't have that desire to read your Word and stay in the Word of God like we used to, to pray like we used to, Father, Lord, we attend to your Word and the fellowship and be in the house of God. These are the things that we begin to slack in, and Lord, we refer to it as drifting. We're drifting away, Lord, as if the ring has slipped off of our finger. And now, Father, it seems like the times that we're in, there's so many distractions. There's so many things to take our place that would distract us. And Lord, keep us from doing the things that you call disappointing to your purpose. And so, Father, at this point, I ask that Lord, when we become complacent, And Lord, when we get to where we, Lord, are not regular in our things, I pray God that we would reach out to someone in the body of Christ. Lord, we thank God, Brother David, for the message last Sunday that began to challenge us all as well, Father, about being able to give up all of our items, Lord, all of the things that we're holding on to and putting in front of everything. And so, Father, I thank God that every one of us, sometimes, We begin to put things in front of all of the blessings that you give us. And so far, we're so thankful for the blessings as we look around and realize more that maybe you don't think that we have many blessings, but Lord, I see so many. And I see so many on a daily basis that we're so thankful that you provided us with our homes and our jobs and the health that we have right now. Lord, I thank you, Lord, for a few days ago, one of our own, one of our good friends of the family here at the Jenkins, Brother Layton, went on to be with the Lord, Father. Lord, we know that he's done laid his armor down, and Lord, now his battle's over. But I pray God that you will help all the family, help all of them, Lord. Brother Eugene, strengthen them, Lord, and all of them, Father. And more than many that are struggling with getting on with their life. And sometimes, Lord, we're just trying to get by and get along. But Lord, help us to hold on to your word. Your salvation is for sure, it's steadfast. Lord, there's nothing that can ever change that. But Lord, thank God, today with all the changes in government, in the world, and all today. We're just holding on and waiting for your time when you come for us. Now, Lord, bless us this morning as we take this first morning of the heart and apply our lives of what we need to do and what we need to look out for. And this morning, Lord, when we go. to be in the house of the Lord and Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. You know, I was looking back and I don't really look at and read a lot of Facebook. Lita does and she kind of tells me when she sees something or whatever. I just get on there and finish. And that's my main purpose for being on here, is ministering on here. But I was looking on there this morning, or it was a few days ago, and I saw something on there that was telling me about how kind of the questions that we have in life, we see and really believe in. But I don't know, maybe what we call it is hearing, really believing. Because today, as we look at the word God, and how it is talking to us about being able to hear, and being able Some of the things we look at the Word of God, the Bible begins to tell us in verses 1 through 4 about hearing him. If he wants to preach this entire chapter, when you get down to verse 5, it talks about being able to see him all the way down to verse 9 that it goes into. And then on down in verse 10, all the way down to the end of the chapter that it talks about in verse 18, able to hold on. I'm glad that I was looking the other day and I saw that it was August the 19th of this year, 47 years ago that Taylor, Deanna Taylor, They do all of those tricks that sometimes are a question we say, they actually have anybody come on there and they basically can have you flunk back or whatever. And I'll figure out how he did that twist of the hand, the magic, and they're kind of like the people that does scientific skeptics, entertainment, you know, and they do it with comedy. And so, as I'm looking at him, I realize how many years ago, and how he started out was, he remembered before that, that he was playing, took bass lessons. that I was looking on Facebook, and I saw this movie. I didn't know that. I mean, God. And he started playing the big bass with the Tommy Smothers. And you won't believe how many other people did the same thing. It was like Jack Dean did something like that when he was starting out his career. And I'm going to be talking about some folks out there that I don't know who I'm talking about this morning, OK? But I'm going to tell you, as I was looking at this, these guys had never sung. But that's exactly how skeptics are. Today, there's people that look at the Bible and they say, is Jesus really believing? Is sin really believing? You know why? Because out of all the things, you start out with 5,000 in faith. Everything from all of the miracles, of the seven miracles that are the most in the Bible, the very first thing is that the Pharisees said, hey, we want to see some signs and wonders. My goodness, what have you saw all that time? You saw 5,000. and children. You saw the miracles of the seven main ones that the Bible speaks of. And then if you notice that when you read that, especially in Luke, you get over there and finally say, well, we want to see a sign. My goodness. And that's exactly how it is in the world today. Every one of us, there's so many skeptics out there that they don't believe the warning that here God has given us about salvation to believers. The danger of neglecting and drifting away from salvation. Now when we read verse one, that's the warning right there, that verse. We gotta heed the things that we've heard unless we slip away from them. But then the reasons are verses two, three, and four. Reason number one is number two, verse two. The judgment under the law that was very strict. It was strict. He said if it was steadfast with anger and every transgression and every disobedience, receive a just recompense of your war. He says, man, it was strict then. And so he said, that's the first reason. Judgment under the law was strict. But the second reason was verses three and four. The judgment under salvation is sure to be even more severe. Because listen to what we read. How shall we escape? if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by him that heard him, and it goes on with that reason, number two, of the judgment under salvation to be even more severe. He says in verse four, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. Well, he made it very crystal clear. You can look at creation. You can look at the galaxy. If it wasn't being held together by God right now, we'd just have just a cluster of a mess out there in the world today. But everything that has been created, God has held it together. He's keeping it together. have heard from the preacher of Hebrews, and he talks about the word he and verse one, it means to give attention to listen very carefully. How intense this morning is as all the other four in the book of Hebrews, a man to listen closely. more closely to the gospel than you ever have, to pay more attention to the gospel more than you ever have, amen. Now, I thank God as we look at these things that he talks about, these warnings that we're reminded of, amen, each and every one of us. You know, I'm reminded of how many times there were judges and the cycle just keep repeating itself, where all of a sudden the Lord would go to the judges in the book of Judges, and man, they'd set up a deliverer judge, and they'd deliver them, and they'd continuously move. You know, I was looking and I realized that there's a question that nobody can really answer, not even God. He said, whoa, you got me there. Yeah, that's true. There's a question that all the philosophers in the world cannot answer. There's a question that all the scientists in the world cannot answer. That one question that all of the doctors in the world that cannot answer and all the angels, not even Satan himself. And I'm going to tell you that one person that not even God himself cannot answer. I got to teach you. And that question is found right here in the second chapter of the book of Hebrews. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? I'm going to tell you, because when God... built the bridge to heaven for man to refuse to walk across that bridge. There's nothing else that God can do is what I'm saying. And so here we see that God has built a door to heaven, amen. And he's opened that door for every one of us to go through that door that men today refuse to walk through that door, amen. There's nothing else that God can do. That's sad. That's sad to know. That what we see out there. Here when we look at the Bible it's got 1189 chapters. Three of them chapters tell man where he came from. Then that makes 1186 that tells where he is going and where man goes. It depends upon what he does with this great And so the first thing that we see is there's a man that we shouldn't expect. That man is Jesus Christ. Every one of us, we were that skeptic. Is Steve really believing? Am I the pen and teller? Am I gonna be someone that questions, you know, I'm not saying that they question salvation, okay? I'm just saying how they would always look and they said, I'm gonna figure out what your act is, you know? And there's been a few of them that even fooled them. You know, but what I'm talking about is, how many of you sitting here have actually experienced something so marvelous, a miracle? I'm going to tell you, let me tell you who it is. I'm looking at you. I'm looking at me. Every one of us is a miracle sitting here this morning because we believe Jesus Christ. Then we step out of faith when there was nothing to step out. The substance of things not seen. There was nothing there, but we have to step out of faith and take God and his word. Is seeing really believing? I'm going to tell you. Here he's talking about hearing, listening. hear him, but I thank God there was a man that we should expect and we did because when we came man, we were sad. I don't want to listen to that old preacher up there talking about Jesus. I mean, I know I was there at one time, even though I was young. Boy, I tell you, I want to stay at home and watch Walt Disney, Daniel Boone, the series that was coming on that day. And I didn't tell my mother that, but it was on when we was leaving on a Sunday night. And I really wanted to watch Daniel Boone. We went down to Blue Springs Baptist Church, way down in Agler thing, man. And man, I'm going to tell you, here, as I look back at the month, the middle of the month of September of 1972, The Lord began to convict me, and I was able to answer that question that nobody else asked. I was gonna step out and take God at his word and say, Lord, I believe you to be the savior of the world, that you can take every one of my weak sins and put them on the blood of Jesus, and it might count when we pay for it, amen. But I didn't do that that morning. I went back that night, but that night, I'm gonna tell you, Boy, I got up and I went down, and man, I'm gonna tell you, after that, I began to realize that there was something real. And I began to notice that that man, after I inspected him with my light, because here, he says, therefore, we ought to give a more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them sleep. Boy, I tell you, the further that I inspected, Hebrews is telling us that we've got to pay close attention to what had just finished being said right here. right after this first chapter, and he goes into the second chapter of Hebrews. Boy, I thank God. He says, in light of that, you better pay close attention to exactly who this man is, amen. The word of that, it says, pay close attention in the Greek, amen. Inspect him, amen. See whether or not he's real. And I'm glad that when I began to inspect Jesus, I found out that he was the realest thing, more real than anything, amen. And so, is seeing really believing? You better believe it is. Well, I thank God. The Bible says things about Jesus and explains about himself. I want to tell you that so far above everything else in this whole world out here, amen, and any other prophet that's out there, praise God, I'm glad that as Acts chapter 4 verse 12 says, there's no other name given under heaven among men whereby we, listen, must be saved. Thank God. It's the name of Jesus himself. And so I thank God every one of us. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto me, listen, except through me. And so I'm glad that Jesus, he revealed something to me back then, praise God. Just like Jesus, every one of us, as we go through life. There's an atheist one time that said recently that he'd been saved. He stood up in church, right at the meeting, and he gave a testimony. He said, I have a million questions to ask God. Thank God, hallelujah. Jesus was not just an arrow that pointed to God, amen. I'm glad he was a mirror that reflected who God was, amen. And Jesus was the Son of God, hallelujah. God the Father, thank God, of Jesus. The Father that he was, I'm gonna tell you, he was the revealing one. And so every one of us, we begin to realize all of the wonderful things about him that he brought. I'm glad that we can go across this country and there ain't nobody else out there that we could ever look for out there that would still be there, amen. I'm glad they talk about movement of Mohammed and Joseph Smith and all of those other ones out there, amen. But I thank God each and every one of us as we look, I'm reminded of the pastor that was over in the Taj Mahal. Man, they were out there, and that pastor visited one of the most famous places at the top of the hall in Kennedy, amen. And there, they were out there, and it had an echo about the place, kind of like this wonderful church here has a great sound that bounces around, amen. And I thank God, as they can see there, how the sound could reverberate in here, amen. Now all of a sudden, they were talking about how in the center of a building that there's no God but Allah and Muhammad and his prophet. And that voice began to reverberate throughout the entire building of the Taj Mahal. And that pastor, he done heard enough. He got up and he said, hey, may I say something to you? And so the guy said, yes, yes, why don't you go ahead? So he got up and all of a sudden he went up to that very spot, Jesus Christ, the Son of God is Lord over all. And you can hear his voice reverberating, Lord over all, Lord over all, Lord over all, praise God. I'm glad each and every one of us, he is that one today for all of us. The message that we must not neglect is well, because he says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, amen? Well, thank God, if you've been expecting that man as I have and said, yes, he's the real thing, he's more real than anything else, amen? Is seeing really believing? You better believe it is, amen. But listening to the power of God that got me into the family, amen. I'm glad that message is something that someone should not neglect today. Every one of us, we remember the time when Jesus came in our heart and life, amen. I remember a couple years ago, we went down to the altar, Lita had beat me down to the altar. We were praying, I went up there and I said, baby, what is it? It's going on, I'm pretty weak, amen. Lita went up there and as she leaned over to me, she was crying, she said, I'm not saved. She said, I'm not saved, I'm lost. I said, you kidding me? It's her right there in the altar at Ola. I sat in his church, I took her by the hand and began to pray with her. And sure, the Romans roamed and she got saved that day, praise God. She had been betrayed for a while, amen, but she got the real flame that morning in the altar, praise God. And I'm glad that she didn't neglect the message that was being spoken, praise God. And so I thank God, every one of us, we know him like today. The message of a divine proclamation that was being made, praise God. The message that Jesus saves us, amen. No, no, that Jesus himself, praise God, and the gospel of Matthew, praise God. I thank God all of us have remembered that day and that time. of that divine proclamation that the Lord. And so I thank God here as we look this morning of how God has been so blessed. Each and every one of us have a purpose in life today. God's miracles confirm the gospel that while Jesus was born of a virgin, amen, I thank God. Boy, I thank God for the 5,000 loaves, the feed of the 5,000 of the loaves and a few fishes, amen. Now, all these wonderful things that took place and all the miracles in the Bible, and I thank God that John 10, verse 38, believe the works that I do that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father, because it was confirmed by God's messengers and God's miracle of all these things that happened. And so each and every one of us when we go through life, I thank God, God has given us there's someone that's li that's not saying I look now there's a professio in this room. That's here And you see the river of life flows naturally into hell. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But I'm going to tell you, along the way, there's a lot of harbors of salvation. And if you don't want to go to heaven, all you have got to do is just listen. It's just never pull into the shore. Never pull into the shore a man of Niagara River that does not have to row to the waters to fall off. Hey, man, it's dead. They can just stay on out there and they'll row around to the dangerous drop off. But I'm going to tell you, if you get on into the shore of salvation, amen, I thank God that every one of us, the greatest sin that a man can commit in this life is simply to neglect God's plan of salvation. Just do nothing. Hey, you want your business to go to nothing? Just neglect it. Don't do a thing, amen. Hey, you want your household to go to nothing? Just start neglecting everything, and it will die away fast, amen. You don't matter if this place is filled up the few of us can do a great And so every one of us, as we hold on this morning to the word of God, here we realize that we're not going to neglect that salvation, amen. Every one of us, as we go through life today, praise God, all of us, that we neglect God's plan of salvation. We have spoken, we have accepted Jesus Christ, amen, as our Lord and Savior, amen. And I'm gonna tell you, there's so many people out there, but I tell you what, we met a man, And we did not neglect it, but lastly and closing, there is a meaning that we cannot reject. And that is, when we look at verse two, it says, for if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. Why, thank God, we don't dare turn the message of deaf ears to the message of salvation, of indifference this morning, amen. to be showing up one of these days that's going to judge every one of us. Amen. I got to think about, man, if I didn't make it up and get that apple out, even though that I didn't know I was in that much danger, I said, Lord, I'm ready to be the judge. Amen. Well, I thank God, God himself, that will judge every one of us. I'm glad one of the most powerful things that I see, that it says here this, that it's so powerful. Amen. Listen, it talks about verse three. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Is seeing really believe in this morning? Every one of us as we go through life and begin to realize that the judge that we're going to meet one of these days the justice of that meeting praise God. I thank God. You see God can deal with man in one of three ways. He can deal with us according to grace, thank God, according to grace. And that is when God does not give a man what he deserves. And so I thank God, I deserve hell, but I thank God that he gave me grace. Justice is when God gives a man exactly what he deserves. Grace is when God gives a man what he does not deserve. You see, if you don't want God to deal with you this morning according to justice, I'm telling you, if you want God to deal with you according to grace, according to mercy, amen. When God saves a man, he deals with him according to mercy. And I'm glad that every one of us deserved hell, but I'm not gonna give it to you this morning. I thank God, listen, God didn't give us what we deserve, but he gave us something much greater. He gave us grace, he gave us mercy, and because of the justice, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to give an account. have been given the promise of eternal life forever and ever. And for all eternity that rings out with the silence of God, listen, we've got the promise of a future one of these days, amen. And so I hope and pray his head's around this morning. Sister Sheila comes around to the piano this morning. And for that new song, really, I want to ask her to just start playing the song. I want to challenge you out there this morning that all of us, when we go through life, we begin to realize that God can truly miracles. He can do wonders. Right now in your mind, you're thinking, what was the greatest thing that I've ever saw? But I told you earlier, look at yourself. You're saved by His marvelous grace. That is a great miracle, this Lord. But think of all the other wonderful things that you saw. Well, I saw God do some marvelous things. He talks about, then he goes about. He goes on and he's talking about the program of we. How shall we escape, amen? And he goes on through all of the reading of the word of God, that he uses a lot of this we here. And so this morning, each and every one of us on all the things that Jesus did, when we realized that we're not reading the word of God, and we're not taking time to pray anymore, Well, we're not affected by the good news, the power of life and death. Well, I'm gonna tell you, there's something about when we're preaching, we're preaching that there's something that's quick to your heart, but now it seems like it's not as powerful as it used to be. Because the power of the Spirit of God, that we compromise a lot of times with all the things that are happening today. We begin to refuse to trust God anymore, and then we begin to rationalize and justify our sins and all the things that we've done, amen. But we can eliminate all of those outside influences and distractions this morning if we just hear somebody for the very first time, the still small voice of Jesus this morning. And he's trying to give away all the distractions that one time just got started out with, that still small voice of Jesus. We heard that, we got rid of all the other distractions that were there in order to hear what God was saying this morning that day. We've got to remove all those distractions and keep our eyes on Him this morning that day. Why, thank God, the one that God will work through each and every one of us. The distractions today, amen. What do we do when we preach that name? Get back into the word, get back into your fellowship. Ask your close friend to pray for you, that you feel like you're not as devoted as you used to be. Because fellowship is what it's all about in this world. All of our spiritual habits that we need to get back in tune, our praying, our Bible reading, our church attendance, amen. Our worship through singing, amen. There's nothing more powerful. God, may you help us as a church, Lord, as we continue to hold on. We hold on, Lord, and continue to do the gospel. We continue to read our Bibles. We continue to pray. We continue to be attentive to the Word of God and, Lord, your fellowship in your house. And so, Lord, bless this people tonight. One of five warnings about your salvation that would not let slip, but more would stay earnestly in the word of God, in Jesus's lawless. Amen.