Word of Salvation – Vol.38 No.39 – October 1999

 

A Sin To Avoid

 

Sermon by Rev. B. Gillard on Hebrews 12:25

Reading: Hebrews 12:14-29

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The story is told of a little boy who went to church one day, and when he came home, his mother said to him, ‘Well, what did the preacher preach about today?’  And the little boy said, ‘sin’.  ‘Oh,’ said the mother, ‘and what did he say about it?’ The little boy said, ‘He was against it.’

Perhaps you have heard that story before or one like it.  It is the task of the preacher to be against sin, and to preach against it, because God is a holy God.

There is one sin in particular, however, which I fear we may often fail to preach and warn against, and it is one of the worst, if not the worst sin of all.

What is it?  It’s the one that is mentioned in the words of our text today in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 25, where we read, ‘See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks.’

What is this sin?  It is the sin of despising the Gospel.  The sin of refusing to hear and to heed what God has said to us.  And there are many who are guilty of this sin today.  Whenever a person is confronted with the Gospel, and they say they are not interested, or they say they have heard that before, or they are too busy with other things, and they refuse to show repentance over sin and faith in Jesus Christ, then they are despising the Gospel.  They are refusing Him who speaks.

There is no greater sin than that, and it is the sin that our text is warning us against.  Why is this such a great sin and one to be avoided at all cost?  Let us notice that there are several reasons given here in our text this morning.  And the first one is this: the example of what happened in the past.

The writer says: ‘If they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven.’  In other words, He has given to us a far superior revelation in the person of His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven, and became man.  The writer also reminds us of this at the very beginning of this letter, where he says, ‘In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.’

God did not send an angel down into this world to tell us about His love for us, and His hatred of sin and rebellion, and the judgement to come.  No, He sent His own Son, and in His Son He has dealt with sin.  The penalty for our sins fell upon Him, and now God calls us to repentance and faith, and a life of obedience to Him.  God has given us a far greater revelation than what they had in the Old Testament.

He has spoken to us with a voice that none can fail to see and hear.  The writer says: If they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven.  Jesus, you remember, put this into one of His parables.  The owner of the vineyard sent his hired servants to collect what was owing to him, and they mistreated some of them, and some they even killed.  Finally the owner sent his only beloved son, and said, ‘They will respect him.’  But they said, ‘this is the heir,’ and they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

If those who refused to listen to the prophets of old did not escape, how much less will they who have refused to listen to God speaking to us in His own Son?

To despise the Gospel; to refuse to come to repentance and faith; to refuse to listen to God’s Word and live in obedience to Him, is to refuse a far greater revelation.  God has spoken in His own Son, and that is the last word God has for us.

But there is one final reason why this is such a great sin, and one to be avoided at all cost, and that is: we are the recipients of superior blessings.

Notice how the writer makes this contrast once again between the old and the new.  In verse 26 he says: ‘At the time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”  The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken – that is created – so that what cannot be shaken may remain.’

In other words, He is reminding us that we have received an unshakeable Kingdom.  He mentions that in the next verse, in verse 28.  ‘Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.’

To put it another way, God has done something in our day, that is new, better, final and everlasting.  The kingdom He gave to ancient Israel was only temporary until Christ came.  But when Jesus came, the Kingdom of God also came.  And Christ’s Kingdom is that perfect, eternal and everlasting Kingdom, and all who belong to Jesus through faith, have their place, as royal members of His Kingdom.  The writer has spoken about this in verses 18 to 22 where he contrasted the old with the new, and speaks about the greater position that those who are obedient to Jesus now occupy, in comparison with those who were members of God’s Kingdom in its Old Testament form.  That has passed away, but the Kingdom of our God will remain.  The new heavens and the new earth will be the home of righteousness forever.  This is what God offers us, and calls us to accept through Jesus Christ, His Son.

The greatest sin, therefore, and the greatest act of folly that anyone can ever commit, is to despise this Gospel.  It is to refuse to listen to God who has spoken in His Son.  It is to say: I am not interested in that, or I have no time for that.  It is to be half hearted about what God has done for us.  And you see, we can despise the Gospel not only actively by rejecting it, but we can do the same passively as well, by not embracing it with all our heart.

A person may say: Well, I’m not against it.  But his life and lack of enthusiasm for it may also show that he or she isn’t all that much for it either.  And their lukewarmness or half-heartedness or indifference, or enthusiasm for everything else in life, other than what God has done for us, may reveal an underlying despising of the Gospel; a refusal to really listen and hear what God has said to us in His Son.

What therefore does He call us to do?  How does God want us to respond to the things He has made known to us?  He sums it up in the last two verses, and we can say that He mentions three things.

First of all, be thankful.  Be thankful to God for His mercy, and that in Christ we have an eternal Kingdom.  A salvation that is sure and certain, because it is secured in the precious blood of Christ, who has redeemed all His people from their sins.  Thankfulness and gratitude is what lies at the heart of what being a Christian is all about.  It isn’t what we can do for ourselves, but what God has done for us.  So God wants us to respond with thankfulness.  But thankfulness is not the whole of the Christian life.  Notice what else He says here: ‘Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.’ Thankfulness is the thing that should move us most to love and serve the Lord, and to listen to everything He tells us.  But if we are honest with ourselves, we will have to admit that we are not always as thankful as we should be, and we are in danger of taking Him for granted, and so we need something else.

Thankfulness is not the total sum of the Christian life.  No, there is also the fear of God, and respect for God.  If the people in the Old Testament did not escape when they took God for granted, or despised His words, then neither will we.  But not only that, our judgement will be much more severe than theirs, because our privileges are far greater.  God has spoken to us with much greater clarity and finality in His Son.  Not to listen to everything He says, and to repent and trust and love Him, is a far more serious thing today than it was back then.  Be thankful therefore, but also be respectful, and don’t think that you can ever play fast and loose with our God, for He is also a consuming fire.  Sin and hypocrisy will never be able to stand in the presence of a holy God.

And then finally we must become His faithful servants.  Our text says, ‘therefore let us be thankful, and so worship or serve God acceptably with reverence and awe.’ The author of a book once wrote, ‘All of life is religion.’  Is that true?  Is all of life religion?  Yes, it is.  We are either serving God or ourselves in all that we do.  We are either serving God or an idol.  God wants us to worship and serve Him acceptably in all we do.  And how do we do that?  By being thankful for all He has given us in His Son.  However, let us also remember that our God is a consuming fire.  And if we are pretending to be one thing outwardly while we are something else inwardly, if we do not acknowledge that He has spoken to us for the last time in His Son and in His Word and tells us what He wants us to do, if we ignore that or despise it and think we can get away with it, then the warning is there.  ‘If they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven.’

AMEN.