Amen. Ushers, do we have in the back, back there on the table underneath the mirror, there was several bags. Do we have those bags? They're looking. It's the secret bags. We just had two more officers come in. And for coming in late, we have a $1,000 check for you. No, I'm just kidding. We just want to say thank you for coming to be with us. And we have a small bag here of just a gift to say thank you. There's gift cards in there and things from the church family, things from local businesses, just to show our support. So we appreciate you guys. Could I ask you your name, officer? Captain Brown, appreciate you coming. Lisa Thomas, Anissa Thomas, thank you so much. We appreciate you coming to be with us. We know that you had several options, places you could have gone today, as well as lots of things to do. And we're honored to have you here. And hopefully you feel loved and supported. And if you're ever in a situation, which I know you will be, where you're facing disagreement and people that don't appreciate what it is you're doing. We want you to know the people of Hunt Valley Baptist Church value and appreciate what you do and we realize it's a sacrifice. I wanna take just a minute and share a truth from the word of God. That's what we do at church. We have a lot of songs. We have a good time fellowship. We'll spend a few minutes together outside eating some snacks and everybody will get the opportunity to personally express your gratitude and please do so. Again, please post online. I think you're supposed to put those pictures and stuff, hashtag faithinblue, so that there's a movement across the nation with support for the police. So if you're posting that, you can put that hashtag faithinblue, but you'll spend some time outside with your officers. We want to take just a couple minutes and look into the Word of God. If you turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter number 2. Now officers, the Bible that we gave you this morning has that passage marked with a bookmark. It actually is marked with a tie perfect. I don't know if you've ever seen one of those, but if you wear a tie, that can keep your tie in place. So that's a little gift as well as a bookmarker. But then we underlined for you the passage that we're going to be looking at today in Hebrews chapter number 2. We're going to look at the first three verses there. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, 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. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? which at the first began to be spoken of by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. This morning I want to speak for a couple of minutes on a great salvation, a great salvation. We're living in a day when people are facing challenges on every side. There is turmoil and opposition in everyday life. It seems some days that we may even reach a point, a breaking point as a nation. The stress, there's small debates that turn into all out brawls. There is sometimes it seems as though the nation itself would be split down the middle and people on every side and in every place and every walk of life are looking for some kind of deliverer, somebody to come in and meet that need and to solve that problem. And I'm not going to get political today, but let me tell you, if you're looking for a politician to solve that problem or to meet that need or to be your savior, you're going to be sorely disappointed. I appreciate those that serve, but they're not the Savior. The Bible says, neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, but Jesus Christ. He is the Lord and Savior. And I want to talk about that great salvation that's available, the deliverance that's available to all of us. People are in great need today. These officers here sitting to my left, they see the worst of society. They see daily people in their hour of need, in their greatest moments of tragedy and heartache. A few years ago, I was in John Hopkins shock trauma about 11 o'clock on a Sunday night. In that shock trauma, there was probably 30 police officers that night. A little boy had been struck by a car. I stood there with the nurses and the doctors and all of these police officers as the doctors did all that they could do to try and save this little child's life. The doctors and the nurses and just so many of them there working feverishly to do everything they could and ultimately they could not save the child's life. The doctor called it and he turned and faced the mother and told her we're sorry. Your son is gone. She fell to the ground, unable to stand under the weight of the burden of having lost her son there at that moment. I'll never forget it as long as I live, the cries of despair that she felt, the weight of having lost her son, looking for any kind of help, looking for any kind of hope. She laid there on the ground, frustrated as I held her, tried to comfort her. That is written indelibly upon my mind, and I want you to understand these police officers see people at that moment all the time. Weekly, if not daily. They carry the weight of those situations when people are in their greatest hour of need. But can I tell you this morning with all the needs that these police officers see, The greatest need for all mankind is that of salvation. The most important thing today is salvation. I share this because I believe it to be of utmost importance. As a matter of fact, in our text here, you'll see that verse number one says, We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. That word earnest heed there means abundant attention. We ought to give abundant attention to this because it's important. Now, officers, have you ever had the privilege of pulling somebody over that said they didn't see the stop sign? They said they didn't see the police, you know that's true. But they didn't see the stop sign or, oh, I didn't see the posted speed limit. I didn't know it was a 55 or I didn't, honest, I was doing it in ignorance and doing all they could to try and get out of it. Well, ultimately, the sign was posted, right? The stop sign was there. They did break the law. The problem is, is they didn't give earnest heed to the sign that told them what they're supposed to be doing. And the officer is just and right. Now, if they want to have mercy, I'm not going to say you do what you want to do. You can have mercy, but you would be just in issuing the ticket, right? They broke the law. So, The Bible tells us here that this is important. We ought to give abundant attention. We ought to be giving earnest heed to these truths. The sad fact is, is that most people give very little attention to the word of God. They give very little attention to what comes after this life, when we should be giving abundant attention to it. Why is it so important? Why is this? Because it's our greatest problem. We see in verse number two, he says, You see, a transgression. is a breaking of the law, a transgression of the law. They broke the law, disobeying the law. And he says, if every single transgression, now listen, if you guys were honest today, you know right now you would be broke if you had to pay a fine every time you spit. You know you would be, yeah, you would be in debt today. If every time you rolled through that stop sign, Every time you transgress the law in some capacity what this is saying is that you transgress the law you disobeyed the law and so there is a just Recompense of reward now. We don't look at that word reward. We usually look at that as a benefit But what this is talking about is a penalty that there's a just penalty. There's a equal payment that has to be paid for when you transgress the law and And the officer's job is to uphold the law, to keep men and women from transgressing the law. You know the best kind of government? Is self-government. But when you fail to govern yourself, then you get governed from an external source. They usually drive cars with nice red and blue lights on them. and they help govern when you are unable to govern yourself. That's what the police officers do for us. They keep our communities and society safe, many times at their own risk. Can I give you the kicker this morning? The kicker is this. Every single time you transgress the law, and I'm talking now about God's law, the law that's written indelibly on the heart of man, the law that's recorded in the pages of scripture. Every time you transgress God's law, it's been recorded. Now, a few years ago, that would have been very hard for us to comprehend. Like, how in the world can every time we break the law, I mean, God knows it, we know that, right? But it's like, it's recorded. But now, pretty much almost all of your life is recorded in somewhere. And the Bible tells us very clearly that, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to hath he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Everything that you've done in your body is recorded, and every time, I'm telling you, every time you transgress the law, every time you sinned, every time you did something wrong, it was recorded. The God of heaven knows about it. To me, that's a great problem because now I have a debt that has to be paid. If I receive the just recompensive reward, if I receive what is just for all the times I transgress the law, I got some time due. I got a payment I got to make. Friend, justice, the justice of a holy and righteous God demands that every transgression is paid for. The debt must be paid. The good news this morning, beloved, is that there is a great salvation. There is salvation for you. It's great because of the great cost it took to purchase it. You ever heard the saying, ain't nothing free? That's pretty much true. You know, this morning we had the privilege and honor of giving to these officers some gifts. It was free to them, but it cost somebody something. Many people in the church family went out and sacrificed of their money to be able to have that honor to give you a small gift this morning. They did it gladly and willingly. They wanted to do it, would do more if they could. just to show their appreciation and their love for you and what you do for our community. It is free to you, but it costs somebody. And we understand that, that it costs somebody. Well, this salvation, beloved, although it's free to you, it costs Jesus Christ his life. The salvation that's available to all, it costs God his only son, and it costs Jesus his life. Romans 8.32 says, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. He gave his son up for you and I, so we could have this great salvation. So we could know and have that debt for every transgression, every time we broke the law, that debt's been paid. Galatians chapter four, verse four says, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law. He gave himself willingly for you and I. You know, according to the LA Times, a Ventura County resident, Donald Anderson, 43 years old, served six months of his twin brother's sentence because the officers that booked him, although they fingerprinted him, they didn't think they needed to run the prints because the guy turned himself in. This is who it is. They booked him, put him in jail, and he served six months of his brother's sentence until his brother, who was the one that was supposed to be in jail, was arrested on another offense. And then they found out there's two of these guys. Now that's love. Go to jail for your brother. No greater love hath a man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. This man went to jail for his brother for six months. Jesus Christ gave his life for you and I. The Bible says, but God commended his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He took my place. He did it for me. It's a great because of the great salvation, because it's a great cost. It's a great salvation because the great capability, the capability of it. Salvation is offered by God and it's complete, it's full, it's eternal. Jesus paid our debt in full. He forgave every sin, every transgression we've ever broken over all of our life, every sin you've ever done. Man, listen, the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And if you're sitting here this morning and you're under the delusion that you haven't sinned, you have other issues that we could try and help you with. But I think pretty much everybody knows that Yeah, we're sinners. There's just two ways about it. I mean, the Bible declares it to be so, for all have sinned. And we know in our heart, as good as we are, and we some good people, right? As good as we are, we're sinners. On my best day, I'm still a sinner. I still wasn't as kind to my wife as I should be. I still responded in anger to my children. I still thought that I shouldn't be thinking. I still coveted after something that wasn't mine. There's places I broke the law. It doesn't matter how good we are, how many sins do I need to commit to be a sinner? One. How many banks do I need to rob to be a bank robber? One. So if we've ever done one thing wrong in our life, we fit into the category of sinner. But I want you to know, and I think anybody that's honest with themselves, they realize that we've sinned not just once or twice or 10 times or 20, but the list is so long. I mean, we can't even remember how many sins we did yesterday, let alone the rest of our life. But the complete salvation given to us by God is it forgives us of that sin from the day we were born until the day we die. What if I came to you today and I said, listen, our church appreciates what you guys do. If you have any debt, you got house debt, you got car debt, you got credit card debt, we're gonna pay all of your debt. Would you be excited? Oh man. Yeah, none of them were asleep. They were all, they're all very attentive. I said, that would have woke them up. They would be like, wait. Yeah, but not only that, we're not only gonna pay all this debt that's in the past, But any need you have right now, if you can think of a need right now, we're going to take care of it. Not only that, if you have a need between now and the time you die, that's covered. Wow. By the way, Elon Musk is a member of our church. No, just kidding. Yeah, no. You would be like, wow. That's amazing. He would be without words. That's what Jesus Christ did for us with the debt we have of our sin. He gave us salvation that's free to us, and it covers everything in the past. It covers current sin, and it covers every sin between now and the time that we are taken onto heaven. Praise God for this great salvation. This great salvation, man. Acts 13, 38 and 39 says, Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that though this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things. All that believe are justified from all things. That word justified is a biblical term, might be a five dollar word, you know, but it means just as if I had never sinned. Justified, just as if I had never sinned. We're justified from all things because of the sacrifice. I'm glad that this is eternal. That it's not just today, it's not something that we're gonna lose. Have you ever gone downtown and parked at a meter and had to feed the meter? You know, if you're like me, you got meter anxiety. The whole time you're away, you're like, is the meter, oh, it's gonna run out. Oh, I gotta get back to the meter. I mean, how much time do I have left on the meter, you know? I mean, you're always wondering, is there anything, is there any credit left there or send one of the kids? Run back here and put another $2 in there so I don't get a ticket for parking here. You always got that. Listen, God doesn't want us to live that way. God gives us salvation and it's eternal. Your salvation's not gonna run out. You don't have to wonder about, oh, does it cover this? It covers it. Is it good enough to forgive me of this? It forgives you of that. It's complete salvation. It's great because of the conditions. Everyone loves to get a good deal. We like getting a good deal, man. Sometimes we get things we don't even need because it was a good deal. At least my wife does that quite often. What are we gonna do with that? I don't know, but it was a good deal. Now I praise God for my wife, lest I be in the doghouse. She is very frugal and, you know, yeah, I'm gonna stop before I get in trouble. We like having a good deal. This is a good deal, man. Greatest deal you've ever gotten. You know, it's something done for us completely by the Savior. There's nothing we can do to earn it. If I told you that illustration I gave you about we're going to cover all your expense from here on out, every one of you have been around long enough to wonder, what's the catch? You would be looking at like, what's the catch? OK, I got to give up my kidney or what? I mean, what are we? There's got to be some kind of, there's something wrong here. Well, there's no catch, beloved. God gave his son freely. The only thing that we have to do is believe that Jesus, God's son, died for you. And believe that his death is sufficient to pay your debt. That his death is sufficient to pay your sin debt. Romans 10 says this, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for the heart man believeth under righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation beloved it's a great salvation because the conditions there is just the condition to believe you just gotta believe that what he did for you is sufficient to cover your sin debt and you accept that and he does it There's nothing, you know, you could try and be as good as you want to be. You know, the whole world, there's a lot of faiths. You guys are going to be in a lot of events this weekend. Faith in Blue, by its description, you're going to interact with many different people of faith. But all of those different faiths, regardless of what kind of biddling they gather in, regardless of what kind of group of people they are, all of them can be divided into two categories. There are those who are trying, they're trying their best to meet an expectation that maybe God sets, or the Bible sets, or their leader sets, but they're working hard to try and receive that. They're trying to earn, let's say trying to be good enough to counteract what we did wrong. There's that group, but then there's another group, and that group is a group that's trusting. They're just trusting what God said that his son's sacrifice was sufficient to cover all my sin. and there's nothing we can do to help that. I could try as much as I want for every day of my life to be as good as I can. If I was able to live sinless from today until the day I die, which we know I can't, but if I could, what do I do about yesterday's sin? What do I do about yesterday's debt? So there's the difference. Either we're trying real hard, or we're trusting. Trusting on the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for you and I. The conditions are great. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You're saved by having faith, by believing what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross. putting your faith and trust in that, not in anything that you could do, not of works, not of any work I can do, not any activity I can do, not of getting baptized or coming and being in church. And by the way, we have a great church, but it's not any church either. It's only through Jesus Christ and His Son. That's the condition. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The question here is asked, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? You know, have you ever been driving down the road and you missed your exit? You had a sign that said 10 miles to exit 10. You had a sign that said two miles to exit 10. You had a sign that said exit 10 ahead. You maybe even had a GPS saying turn Get in the right lane to take exit 10. All of those warnings and yet you still missed your exit. I don't know how that happens, but it does happen because we're distracted, because we're preoccupied, because we're not giving earnest heed to all the signs that this is where we're supposed to be going. and we miss the exit. And the worst is when you gotta go like eight miles to get to another ramp to turn around, and when you turn... I'm not gonna go down that road. When you're distracted you miss the exit. Well beloved, the question is stated here in a rhetorical way. He says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? The rhetorical question is this, you won't escape. You've been encouraged to give earnest heed to this, and salvation is there. It's a great salvation, and it cost God His Son and Jesus His life, and all we gotta do is put our faith and trust in Him and believe. But if we neglect it, how are we gonna escape? The answer is we won't. Why would somebody continue in the way that they were going and not respond? The Bible tells us He says, and this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. I know with all the heartache that you guys witness, that you have to, in your minds, sometimes you're dealing with somebody and you have to be saying, why would you continue down this road? You have to be saying that. You have to be saying, you know if you keep doing this and you may earnestly be trying to help them to get into a better situation and to stop ending up in the trouble that they're in. And listen, you know this is gonna cost you your freedom. This may even cost you your life. This is gonna end you up in a bad place. Why would you go down that road? Why would you keep doing that? And you guys are broken trying to help them. The Bible says we do that because our deeds are evil and we love darkness rather than light. The light of the Word of God has been shared this morning and you have a decision to make. Are you going to give earnest heed to the truths of the Word of God and respond and trust Jesus Christ before it's eternally too late? Or would you neglect it and continue down the road we're going? Could I ask you if you would to stand with your heads bowed and your eyes closed? Don't tune me out yet. Don't tune me out quite yet, but just stand with your heads bowed and eyes closed. I wanna continue to talk for just a minute, but I want you to be able to think. God's put up some warning signs for you today. Maybe he's pointed you to some truth. Are you gonna give earnest heed to it? Are you gonna respond? Don't roll through this stop sign that's been set up for you. God is offering you a great salvation today to have all the transgressions you've ever committed all of your life, all of them covered by the blood of his son. You know, officers, when you give a man a warning and he doesn't heed that warning, there's consequences. When they don't heed the warning that you gave them, there's consequences. Can I read to you? Would you listen, just all of you, just listen for a minute. Proverbs chapter one says this, because I have called and ye refused. I've stretched out my hand and no man regarded. Ye have said it not, all my counsel, and would none of my reproof. God says, I sent you a message. I sent you a warning. Are you going to respond before it's too late? I'm going to ask the pianist to play softly on the piano. And I want to ask you this morning, if you're here, you'd say, Pastor Caleb, that's me. I've gone through life carrying this weight of all the transgressions that I've committed. I know that I'm a sinner. There's no question here. There's nobody here that's not. And you've got that weight of transgression on your heart. And you say, I need to get this covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. Would you show me by an uplifted hand, say, Pastor Caleb, would you pray for me this morning? I need what was shared this morning about the truth of this great salvation. Would there be one here? From the officers in the front to the smallest child in the back, would there be one here who'd say, that's me? Thank you for that hand. There's a free and great salvation that covers our greatest need. Our greatest need is to have our debt of sin paid for. And Jesus is willing to pay it. All we've got to do is respond to Him.