It's good to be here. We're going to turn this evening to Hebrews, chapter two, Hebrews, chapter two, and I'm making every effort to be to end the meeting on time. So let me come right to the preaching. But I'd encourage you to come back unless it interferes with your Wednesday night prayer meeting. Come back on the Wednesday on the 15th. I'm not an ecumenist. No, I am an ecumenist. Actually, there is good ecumenism. If you're joining up with people of like precious faith, I was at someone's house earlier and they said, We don't have to fellowship with only free Presbyterians. I think every one of us agrees with that as long as they're fundamentalists and separatists. What concerns me in our day, and we have this battle in our churches in the U.S., is that you have preachers that are good reform preachers and are more solid in many ways on understanding the gospel than many of our fundamental Baptist brethren. But at the end of the day, they're undoing all their solidness by their ecumenicity, which is a compromise of the gospel. This documentary is something I've been working on for five years. I'm just getting to the section now and dealing with Dr. Paisley, which is an interesting section, but it's a documentary that talks is basically me taking the microphone and putting it up to different ecumenical preachers that are somewhat well known in our country. You may not know them, but they're on television and pressing them on this issue that our media is pressing a lot of people on. And that is, is Christ the only way of salvation? Rick Warren, some of you heard that name. He was interviewed on one of our public television programs from coast to coast. And he does believe that Christ is the only way of salvation. But when they put that question to him, he was hemming and hawing. He was going back and forth. He didn't want to answer it straight, because if you do, you isolate many of your listeners. But at the end of the day, we need to be straight because Christ was straight. He said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father in heaven but by me. And we say that Christ is the only way, not just because the Bible says he's the only way, or that is the heart of the argument. But the reality is, if we were to compare Christianity to every religion in the world, it is very clear and you can read the religious books. Not that I suggest you do that, but I think as ministers, it does help. You might read the Koran through or you read some of the Hindu scriptures through and you come to find something very consistent in all of them. They can never offer you a promise, a security of eternal life or whatever they want to call it. Nirvana, I think Samadhi, some of them call it eternal paradise or whatever. They can never guarantee you that because they always throw you back upon yourself. Work salvation, every one of them. It's just a different flavor of works. The Church of Rome is very deceptive because they come to the Bible and they say, well, here's work salvation from the Bible. If you do enough good, you're going to earn your way to heaven. And that's why you can never really know. Rome will tell you that you can't know for sure that you're going to go to heaven. And yet the Bible says very clearly, these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life. Why is it that you can know that you'll have eternal life? Because Christ has fulfilled the law perfectly. He's kept it. He's been perfectly obedient. And that's what he gives to us, his righteousness. And he also takes our sin upon himself and drinks held dry. That's what the death on the cross is. It's hell. Christ paying for sin. That's why the Bible is the only book that tells you you can have your sins forgiven. I would say to you, young people that are here tonight, I would encourage you to listen to the word preached. I think it's very difficult as a preacher in this generation that we live in. And this is not to make any judgment upon our young people. I don't know any of you, just a few of you, maybe personally. But at the end of the day, I think we have to say that when the gospel is preached over and over again, and rightly so, there can tend to be an apathy among our youth, those that are not saved. I think I've already heard that. When I try, when I study, I try to think, how could I say this in a different way? And I don't know if we can ever really say it in a different way. And the Bible does say it's not with enticing words of man's wisdom. It's a demonstration of the spirit and power. When Christ preached, he said, my gospel came not to you in word only, but in power. At times when he gave the parables, all they heard was the story of the parable. And he said, hearing they hear not, meaning they didn't understand what the parable really meant. There was a deeper spiritual meaning. You can sit in the meetings and you can just hear the words and they can mean nothing to you. But the fact of the matter is, if you die without Christ, you will go to hell. And the Bible says that if you want to debate whether the Bible is God's word, we can sit down and debate that. You can argue with the historicity of the Bible and you'll be overwhelmed to see how much evidence there is to show that this book truly has the marks of divine authorship. That won't convince you because your issue, if you're unsaved tonight, it's not a lack of evidence. There's plenty of evidence. The Bible says the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even God's eternal power and his Godhead, so that you're without excuse. You look at the creation around you and when you look at creation, you can see very, very clearly that it's not something that came by chance because, you know, as well as I do, that you never get chaos out of order. This building didn't just get dropped out of an airplane overhead and fall together this way. You know that even though you didn't See this, perhaps you weren't here the day it was built. You know, it wasn't just thrown together in a pile because of order. And the Bible is like that. It shows the marks of divine authorship. So when you come to look at the Bible, you have to say, what does the Bible really say? This is the word of God and you must heed it. That's a very loving message. Sometimes people say you preachers are very harsh. Well, I think a preacher should be serious. If I came into a burning house and grabbed you out of your bed at night because your house was burning, you didn't know it, I would just grab you by the neck or whatever and throw you out the door and get you out as fast as possible. And I don't think you would worry about how rough I was. But you know, the Lord is very loving and he is merciful. And he says, you come to me, I'll pardon your sin. Hebrews chapter two, we'll look at verses one to four, and then I want to focus on one phrase in verse three. This is Paul's epistle to the Hebrews, to the Jews, and he says, therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we've heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. So it's possible to let the things we've heard slip, go away and not pay attention and heed to them. And then he says, for if the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression, every sin and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we, and we Hebrews that is, we Jews, we people of God, 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 them that heard Him, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His own will. I want to focus on that one phrase there in verse 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Let's just pray as we come to look at the Word. And would you please pray for me? I need the Lord's help to bring the Word tonight. Pray for your friends perhaps that you brought that are unsaved. Pray for yourself if you're saved tonight. Pray for those that you know are not saved. that the Lord would save him this very night. Oh, God, we commit this meeting to thee. We confess we need help. We pray for those in the meeting that have come tonight, perhaps with a bit of giddiness in their soul. We pray that thou would take that out of them, sober them up. Oh, God, we know that the preacher can see those things, but oh, God, thou to see them even with inside the soul. And so we pray that thou would put a great solemnity upon each. Lord, we pray that each in this room, those that know not thee would Get a sense that perhaps tonight is even their last night. Lord, we know it could be. We pray that Thou would shake them. We pray that Thou would give grace to the preacher tonight to present the love of Christ. Lord, we do thank Thee for Thy love. We thank Thee for Thy mercy. We thank Thee, Lord, that You cleanse us from all of our sins. And we recognize that our hearts are full of hell. And Lord, we thank Thee for the mercy that pardons us. Lord, give me help tonight. Thou does know I need that grace, that touch from Thee. And give me that burden within my soul, not just to preach the gospel as if it's just another meeting. But Lord, for some tonight, it might be their last opportunity. It might be their last meeting. So, Lord, bring the word in power tonight, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. You come to that phrase again, it says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? How shall we escape? And notice the word we. If you look at the word we and then you look at the title that we give to this book is the book of Hebrews. Paul is speaking about the people of God, not all the saved people as the people of God, but there is such a thing as the visible community. And this book is written to the visible community, the Jews, those that came and they worshiped God, those that had the animal sacrifices day after day and year after year that taught them the gospel, the Old Testament saints. They understood the gospel. They understood that the sacrifice is there in the temple and in the tabernacle. They understood that that was a picture lesson to draw their mind out to Christ. And they were taught those things. They had departed from the faith. They had apostatized. And by the time Christ comes on the scene and Paul comes on the scene, he's not preaching really to the Jews of the Old Testament. Not their religion. This is apostate Judaism. They were in the church of God. They were perhaps like young people that grew up in the church. Another generation coming up that knew not the Lord. nor yet the works which the Lord hath done." And so they turned that ritual, that worship, that activity in the temple, they turned that into the reality. And they thought, if I do these rituals, if I go to church, if I sing in the temple, if I come to the sacrifice of the animal, then that's what's going to save me. And that wasn't it at all. They had to look past that picture. They had to, as it were, they were singing the hymn and singing the words, That action never saved them. They had to look past that to the reality, to the cross, to the work of Christ. And the Bible, when it talks about salvation and the church, it says that there will be a day that comes within a church, a denomination like ourselves. Some people perhaps in the free church think we're exempt from falling away. But a denomination that had the blessing of God, a country that saw God move like our country, your country here, where the courts shut down in 1859 because the gospel came in such power that people were convicted of their sin. They repented of their sin. They got right with the Lord and their life changed, as that's what the gospel says happens. Yet you find that a generation rises up and doesn't know the Lord. So what happens when they come to the temple? Or what happens when they come to the house of the Lord? Well, they come without heart reality. The Bible says, in vain. Do they worship me? Teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. They're sort of like the philosophers, the Epicureans and the Stoics in Acts chapter 17, where Paul is on Mars Hill there and he's speaking to them and he says, I behold your devotions. There's the tomb of the unknown God. You really don't know him. And then he says, whom you therefore ignorantly worship. They're going through the motions and they're ignorantly worshiping. They have, as the Bible says, lip service. The Bible speaks about those who honor me with their lips and their heart is far from me. Christ speaks about that in Mark 7. He speaks about Isaiah saying this people. There's a people in the church. They've grown up in the church. They know the words to the hymn. They could tell you the gospel. They have memorized, perhaps, the catechism. But yet it's all lip service. They honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." And the Lord says He desires truth in the inward part. The Bible says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. That's what you really are, what you are in your heart. That should be a sobering thing. Some of you may laugh at that. Well, if we had the ability to expose each other's hearts, I think we would be grieved, we would be sick, because the Bible says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? The Bible says God looks into the heart. God sees the heart. That's actually where sin really lies. The actions, the volitions, if you will, they're only the symptom of the inclination, the bent of the heart. The Bible says it's the heart that the Lord looks at. You come to worship. You know, it's interesting when you read that about Christ, when he speaks about those honoring me with their lips, he actually uses a word in there, the word hypocrites. Isaiah says these are hypocrites, these people, they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. How do we think of hypocrites today? We think of hypocrites as those that come to church, but then they're out in a life of immorality, some perhaps in our youth group, in the free church. There's no doubt that we have immorality among some of our young people. That's a reality. And the fact is, those that might profess the Lord, they come to church and they present themselves as one thing, and yet they go out in wickedness and sin secretly. The Bible actually calls a hypocrite someone that sits in the church, and they may be basically moral, upright in society, but they come and sing the hymns. And the word hypocrite is actually the word stage actor. It's someone who is a dramatist, someone that is an impersonator, one who in the play, in the drama, they wear a mask. They're hiding what they really are. They're actually presenting themselves to be another character when they're not that character. Nothing wrong, in some sense, with some drama or play. I don't believe it ought to be in the church. But the fact is, it's someone presenting themselves as something else. And that's a hypocrite. The Lord says there's those that are in the church. They're hypocrites because they don't have the heart reality. The Bible makes it abundantly clear of the reason they don't have the heart reality. because they'd never been born again. Reminded of the parable of Christ when He spoke of the five wise virgins and the five foolish virgins. In those days, the wedding was a little bit different than it would be in our day. The bridesmaids, they didn't know when the wedding would be. They perhaps knew the week, and the bridegroom would surprise them in the middle of the night, say the wedding's now. He would come. They had to be ready. They didn't have electricity in those days, but they had a lantern, and they had to have enough oil in that lamp. And when they lit the lamp, They could see the way, the path to the wedding. Five were wise. They had oil. The five were foolish. They didn't have oil. And the Bible speaks of the oil as that picture, that type of the Holy Ghost. And if you don't have the spirit of God within you, you can't have a changed life. You can't even repent of your sin. You can't even put faith in Christ. And the Bible says that's the reality of what we need. We need the Lord. We need the Lord to touch us. And that was the community that Paul was preaching to. I gave this message in this United States to some of our young people. And I said, this is my text. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? And the girl came up to me afterwards and she said, as soon as you announced that text, I knew that I didn't need to listen because I didn't think it applied to me. Well, let me say, if you're saved tonight, a gospel word ought to encourage you of what the Lord did. for you and saving you. But if you're not saved tonight, this Word... That girl professed to be saved. I don't know. But this Word here is the Word for you tonight. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? I want to very briefly look at three words in this text. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? I want to look at the word escape. I want to look at the word salvation. And I want to look at the word neglect. The word escape, notice it first. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? What that strikes you as you read that, you immediately ask yourself the question, what is it speaking about? Escape from what? The clear context shows us that it's speaking about escaping from judgment. Look at the verse before. It speaks about the word spoken by angels, and that word was steadfast. And then it speaks about every transgression and disobedience, how it received a just recompense of reward based upon the word that was spoken by angels. Now, I think the word angel here, I think it's right you could say it can be translated messengers. That's the word messenger. The word angel is probably a reference to the Old Testament prophets. If the word that was spoken by the prophets of old was steadfast, was continual, and that word was a warning, like Noah, for example, for 120 days, warned of judgment to come. If that word was steadfast, And every time judgment was preached, every single time judgment came, you can be sure that if God says to you, there is salvation, but there's also damnation, you can be absolutely sure, just as much as this world saw a flood, that you will not escape that judgment. That's exactly what it's talking about. If the Word spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression, every sin, Every disobedience absolutely received a just, a fair recompense of reward. How shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation? You look at the Bible, the Bible speaks all throughout about judgment. You realize that's what the whole Bible, in essence, is dealing with judgment and then salvation. If the events that happened in Genesis chapter three, the fourth, that had never happened. There would be no need to write the rest of the Bible. That's the thrust of the Bible. It's how men that are far from God and alienated by God because of their sin under the judgment of God, how they can be made right with God. That's what the Bible speaks about. You read the Bible and it says, for example, in Hebrews 9, it says very clearly, as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. Now, if I were to say to you tonight, do you believe in death? It would absolutely say, yes, you do believe in death. Why do people believe in death? Because they see it every day. And then you say, do you believe in judgment? They say, no, I don't believe in judgment because I don't see it. I don't know that it's there. But you can read in the Bible where actually individuals die. One individual, particularly in Luke 16, the rich man, it actually gives you people say today they want to see a glimpse behind the veil of death and they're curious. All you need to do is read the Bible. what the infinite God has written for us. It's not hard for the infinite God to give us a picture of what lay behind the veil of death. Look with me, if you would, in Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. Just note. Luke 16. Remember, when I was a teenager and this portion of Scripture was first set forth before me. Speaks in verse 19 about a certain rich man. And he talks about his clothing, clothed in purple and fine linen. He fared sumptuously every day. There was a beggar. You come down to verse 22 when it says it came to pass, the beggar died. This is the part I want you to notice. That beggar was carried by the angel into Abraham's bosom. Then it says the rich man also died and he was buried. Now, just notice that. And there's none of you that would disagree with that tonight. If you're here, you're not saved. You're not worried about your eternity. You would never disagree with that because you know that people die and they're buried. You've seen graveyards. Let's look past the graveyard. Let's get a glimpse into eternity. And what do you read? You read, and in hell, he lift up his eyes, being in torments. And we see he gets a special glimpse into paradise. He sees the father of the Jews. He seeth Abraham. Far off. He's at a distance. He's nowhere near hell. He's in heaven. Then he sees Lazarus with him. And Lazarus is the one that lived in his neighborhood that also died. Look at this man. He's very alert. He's very alert. He cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he would dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I'm tormented in this flame. Can I say tonight that that man is still there in hell? That man is as we sit here. He is in that place. And John chapter 5 says, the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice. They that have done good under the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil under the resurrection of damnation, and that man will be resurrected at the final day. His body in the grave will be joined together and will stand before the judgment of God. What is the judgment of God? The Bible says the hour is coming when the Bible says, as it is appointed of the man wants to die. But after this, the judgment, what is the judgment of God? Well, look in Revelation chapter 20, if you would just look there. Revelation chapter 20. Look at verse 11, it speaks about the great white throne judgment. This is John the Apostle. He's given a vision into the future and he says, I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And then he says there was found no place for them. Some people think that refers to there's no place for them in heaven. I think it's possible it can mean there's no place for them to escape at all. And notice what he says here. He says, I saw the dead small and great. That's young people and old people, you could say, stand before God. And the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works." Judgment is the day when you're judged for everything you've done. For those that don't have their sins pardoned through the merits, through the work, through the death of Christ, the only Savior of sinners, the Bible says they're judged according to their works. What does that mean? Well, you look in Ecclesiastes, you're familiar with the last chapter of Ecclesiastes. It's that portion that tells young people, remember now thy creator and the days of thy youth before the evil days come near. And at the very end, it talks about the final day of judgment. It says it to young people, remember your creator and the days of your youth, because it's so often true that our dear young people think, well, I've got a whole life ahead of me. I'm not going to die. I'm not going to have to face judgment. You look in Ecclesiastes 12, 14, the verse says this. Just listen to it. It says, For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil, every secret thing. The Bible says in Matthew 12, the things that we would think are insignificant. The Bible says every idle word that men shall speak, they'll give an account thereof in the day of judgment. What does that mean? Even the Bible says that shall not take the name of the Lord by God in vain. You come to the Lord's house tonight if you're unsaved here and yet you are pretending that you're saved and you're singing the hymns of testimony as if they mean something to you and you're lying. That's hypocrisy. The Lord says every idle word that men shall speak, they'll give an account there over the day of judgment. How do you know if they're idle words? They're idle words if they don't mean anything to you, if they never have meant anything to you. We all have to admit, as Christians, when we come at times to sing the hymns, our heart is not where it should be. There's times when the Christians fight the coldness of heart, the deadness of heart. And someone preaches on that. We're convicted. The Lord chastens us because we're children of God. But if you're a child of wrath, if you're a child of disobedience. And I'll be touched by those things. You sing the words, they're boring to you yesterday, they're boring to you today, they're boring to you tomorrow. You'd have to ask yourself the question, is that a vain word? How be it in vain? Do they worship me? Do I ignorantly worship? Challenge yourself with that. Let a man examine himself. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That doesn't mean work your way to get to heaven. It's not by works that you're saved. But it means test yourself. Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good. You're going to be brought into judgment because you're not looking to the Lord for pardon and mercy, because you really don't see your sin. Something to think about tonight. I'd say tonight is very possibly some of you are bored stiff. Some of you might come to the Lord's house, you say, what kind of message is this you're bringing to us? I don't have a clue who any of you are. I just know this is a gospel meeting. You were supposed to bring your unsaved friends, but maybe you're not saved. I know. that the Bible is absolutely clear that in the visible community there are always those that are tears. And if you're a tear, it's not that we hate you. We love you. I think it's easy to get up and say you're going to hell if you reject Christ. It's not an easy thing to say. I like to be liked by people just like every young person likes to be liked. Who likes to be unpopular? The Bible says, Thus saith the Lord. Christ says, neither is there salvation in any other. There's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. You must be saved. That brings me to my second point. You'll notice there in our text what it says. Our second word that I want to note is that word of salvation. How shall we escape if we neglect something? If we neglect salvation? What is salvation? Salvation is that which God has provided for you. He has provided a way to escape that judgment. He has provided a way of pardon. How has He done it? He's been judged for you. We just looked at the rich man in the lake of fire, in hell. Did Christ go to hell? I would say He did, not to the torments of hell, but to the death on the cross. That was hell. It was the equivalent. The death on the cross was judgment, where all the sins of the believer were laid upon Christ. Let me make that point. This idea that Christ died for the whole world. He did not. He died for the believer. Don't think for a moment that you can sit back and hope that death is appropriated to you. You must look to Christ. You must lay hold of that death as your only hope. But you'll never do that, except you come to see your sin for what it is. No one will ever repent of their sin. You know, today we have easy believism. Just believe. Believe what? That the Lord exists. The devils do that and they tremble and they're not saved. The word believe is the word faith. It's appropriating it to myself. It's laying hold of it. And I'll never lay hold of Christ unless I see that I'm a vile sinner. You turn from your sin because the Lord convicts you of your sin. When you're converted, you repent of sin. You don't clean yourself up to come to the Lord, but you really do repent of sin. It's not like something you work to do. It's like when the Lord regenerates you or gives you the new birth, you don't want your sin. And I admit that as Christians, there's times when we love sin. I'm talking about where our whole life is not a habit of sin. We have now a change where God has worked in me. The Bible speaks about salvation. It is a laying hold of Christ. The word saved, what does it actually mean? The word saved in the Bible, the original word, the word that was used by the Philippian jailer, what must I do to be saved? It's the word to keep safe, to rescue from danger, to rescue from destruction. It speaks of that place of refuge. You escape judgment. You can escape from something, but you escape to something. It is that sure rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the judgment comes, the Bible says your house will be like a house that's built on a solid rock. Your house tonight, perhaps built upon the sand. When the storm of judgment comes, the Bible says it'll be swept away. As mentioned in this documentary. When I was 18 years old, I was very interested in photography, and I used to go out. I wouldn't do this today. I'm not so convinced it's a good thing. I used to be interested in photojournalism, and anything about photojournalism always reports bad news, not good news. And there's often people, houses burn down, and you go to take pictures. There's one photographer in Boston, Massachusetts with a newspaper called the Boston Globe. And he wrote a book and told young photojournalists how they could sell their pictures. And he said, the way to sell your pictures to the newspaper is always get to the fire scene and look for rescue photographs. If someone's being rescued, that will make the paper, and you'll make money. And he told the story of how he went to a fire scene. There were people trapped at the top floor. And he started to take pictures. And he got more than he bargained for. In our country, our buildings are built differently in the inner city. Today, we have fire escapes or stairways on the inside that people can get out very quickly. When the World Trade Center's caught on fire, people were coming down those internal fire escapes. But years ago, we didn't have them when the buildings were built. And some of the old buildings in America, and you may have seen this on television, they needed fire escapes. So since the building was already built, they bolted to the outside of the buildings these massive cages. And the cage would be bolted to each floor, and they'd have ladders staggered to get down to the ground. Well, this is a photographer from the Boston Globe came on the scene, and as the whole building was engulfed, he saw as the firemen were trying to get a ladder to the very top, one of the windows opened. And he lifted his camera for the rescue shot, and it was a woman with her young boy, and they stepped out onto one of these cages. And he began to click the camera and hold it down. And they began to shoot picture after picture. And as he did, he got more than he bargained for. As they stepped out, that cage was rusted and the bolts were rusted and it pulled off the wall and came down nearly landing on top of them. But he kept shooting the pictures as they were falling to their death. And that photograph ended up changing some of the fire codes in our country, which is now why they build the fire escapes on the inside. But I thought about that. incident that happened. You think about that in relation to the gospel. You might think tonight that you're going to escape the judgment. The fact of the matter is, what are you stepping out onto? The Bible says other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. You may have all kinds of ideas. Well, I go to church. Well, I'll just slip in with my family, my friends. The Bible says no. Are you on the rock or are you on sand? Do you have a sure foundation or do you not have a sure foundation? You may not want to worry about that at all. I want you to come and look, if you will, as my time is running out, but look at the last phrase just in the verse. Notice the word here. The word neglect. Our third word. Neglect. How shall we escape? How shall we How shall we escape judgment if we neglect so great salvation? How shall we escape judgment if we neglect? The word neglect is a word that implies that there needs to be action. You just can't sit there and say, well, I hope I'll be saved. The Bible says you have to act on it. The word neglect is an interesting word. If you turn to Matthew 22, you can find the word. And a parable, Matthew 22. Matthew 22 is a parable that's not extremely familiar by maybe most of it, maybe it is to you. But Matthew 22 is the parable of the marriage of the king's son. Verse 3 tells you that the king, that that king sent forth his servants, Matthew 22, 3. He called his servants, he sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the marriage. And notice what it says. It says they would not come. Then you read, behold, verse four, the king says, I've prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fatlings are killed and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage. He's calling them to the marriage. What does it say in verse five? Those that were called, it says, but they made light of it. They made light of this call to come to the marriage. They went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. His money was too much. He had to have his money, so he neglected the marriage. And, of course, the application is people that neglect the Gospel. But notice there in verse 5, "...but they made light of it." Those four words are the word that's translated neglect in our passage in Hebrews. How shall we escape if we make light of the Gospel? What does it mean? to make light of the gospel, that is to treat the gospel as a light thing. You'll not think much of escaping judgment or the gospel if you treat it as a light thing, but let me say when it comes upon you and it sobers you up quickly, why do people fear death? I think there's a sense where we all even Christians fear death, but it's more the idea. I think we fear how we're going to die. Don't want to die in a plane crash. That's a scary thought. But it's more than that. Why do people fear death even when they lie on a bed peacefully? That's an interesting thought. They're not crashing. There's nothing horrific in the sense of the the outward death itself. It's not necessarily painful, but yet they can lie upon a peaceful bed and yet be terrified of entering into eternity. Why is that? Because every man knows he's going to be judged. Everybody knows they have the law of God written on their heart. That's part of being created in the image of God. Romans one tells us that the wrath of God is revealed. from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. They actually hold it. You could translate that also, hold down or suppress. Everybody's conscious of that. The greatest illustration of that is in Revelation 6 when they cry for the rocks to fall upon them and to hide them from the face of the one on the throne because they see the holiness of the Lord. So it's not death in itself they fear. Because they're crying for death. They're crying for the rocks to fall upon them, to hide them from what's coming after death, the judgment. They're shaken. But in life, they're careless. They neglect it. They treat it as nothing. In America, about three years ago, this court case just came up in our courts. We had a nightclub up in Rhode Island, I say up in the northeastern part of the United States, the state of Rhode Island. where there was a group called Great White. I thought it was an interesting name. It reminds me of the Great White Throne Judgment. A group, a rock band, a group called Great White was beginning their act, and they had these pyrotechnics, these different rockets that shot off. And the building, in America we don't build brick buildings like you. Here we build wooden buildings. And this building was entirely made of wood, and it was a very old building. When these fireworks went off, the fireworks went off, And the building caught on fire. The people had come in that night. There was probably about 150, 200 of them. They had come in. They never really checked the exits. There were a number of exits on that floor. But immediately as the building began to catch on fire and it began to spread rapidly, they all panicked. And instead of going to the exit, some of them did. But instead of the majority going to the exits, there were about 100 of them that rushed down the staircase to come out the doors that they entered into. It was very interesting. And you read the story as they opened the doors and they sought to get out of the area there. They walked out. They got jammed in the stairwell and they couldn't get out the front door. News cameramen showed up at that time. They began to film it. You had a hundred people that were right there that it just seemed that they just walked out the door. They were only a few feet away, but they were so wedged in. It almost looked like there was a piece of glass over the double openings of the door because people were upside down and people were pressed as if they just couldn't break through. Some people were going and trying to pull individuals out, but they were squeezed so tight they couldn't get them out. One man they did get out. It reminds me of the verse in Jude where you pull them. from the fire, even hating the garments spotted by the flesh. And then the fire started to come. At that time, we're very sensitive in our media. The cameras were shut off and they didn't show the rest. So you wouldn't have known what happened, but there was a man at the very bottom of the pile. The man at the bottom of the pile, he lived to tell about it. He said there was a tunnel through the bodies that brought in cold air that he could breathe as the fire was coming in. And he remarked about what he heard. He said it was the most sobering thing that he ever heard in regard to those that were dying as the fire came and engulfed the entire staircase. He says, the screams were very strange. And these were his words. He says, the screams when the fire came were of great terror and great fear. But then he says, it was like a switch as the fire began to gulf. It was of great anger. And he says there was swearing and cursing. And then it was like a switch, he says. Then there was a great sorrow. Great sorrow. They went from great fear to great anger to great sorrow. You know, I wonder if that's not what the judgment is like, because when the Bible speaks about hell, it says they gnash their tongue. They gnash their teeth. And I think that's a word for anger, for rebellion. They gnaw their tongue. Send Lazarus that he would dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I'm tormented in this flame." I'm not one to so much emphasize the flames of hell. I believe that hell is flames. But I don't believe it takes a spiritual person to stay out of flames. Any idiot in the right mind, if you're standing in front of a burning building and you took their hand and said, come on, let's walk into the flames, I don't care how ungodly or wicked they were, they would never come with you. You can present the gospel as just an escape from hell. The issue is deeper. It's what takes me to hell that is the issue. It is my sin. And let me say tonight, if you're unsaved, you're filled with sin. Am I a sinner? I'm a vile sinner. Is my heart wicked, deceitful and desperately wicked above all things? Am I better than you? No way. The Bible says I'm pardoned. The Bible says blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. I've always been struck with the discussions in the Bible of the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament. We believe sinners can be saved from homosexuality, but we also believe the Bible says it's an exceedingly wicked sin. But what strikes me is the Bible says at the judgment day, when those of Sodom and Gomorrah are standing at the final judgment, it says that there are going to be others that are standing there with them that are going to be in worse shape because they have treasured up wrath against the day of judgment. Now, think about that. God would take cities on earth and destroy them, bring them, as it were, to a national judgment where others were left and didn't get judged on earth. They were brought to it. You would think, man, they're in trouble at the judgment. The Lord says, no, there are those that are in far worse trouble at the final judgment. And who are they? I will say, and I don't think I'm out of line to say this, I believe It is free Presbyterians, free Presbyterian young people. Why do I say free Presbyterians and not some other person? You may not realize the religious scene. There's no time to go into it tonight. Look at the free church is not the only church is doing the work of God, but if you want to look at all the denominations, this is the only church, one of the only ones that's taking a very strong, separated stand. We're a doctrinal church. We believe in preaching Christ, but we believe in the separatist stand. What a responsibility. Then even here in Ulster, the revival, what God did in 66, the move of God, what a responsibility. And the Bible says to whom much is given, much is required. I think of the words of Mark six, where Christ is speaking to his disciples and he says, whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you when you depart, then shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily, I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Christ Himself speaking about the cities He walked into that had the privilege of hearing Christ Himself. I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city that I walked into. Lamentations 4.6 says, For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughters of My people, the visible church, Hebrews, is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom that was overthrown as in a moment and no hands stayed her." I think of Hebrews 10, of how much sore punishment. Suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing. I don't know all that verse is talking about, but I believe that young people that are unsaved in our churches, they are sanctified in the same sense that the unsaved spouse is sanctified with the saved spouse. The Bible says that. There's a restraint. There's a salt effect. Yet you're, as it were, sanctified, but not savingly. You need the Lord. Can I challenge you tonight? Can I put it before you very strongly that if you're not saved, come to Christ. He promises to cleanse you from all your sins. You say, well, you don't know my sins. You couldn't name a sin that's too great. I worked with drug addicts and prisoners, and you couldn't surprise me with any sin either. Some sins you couldn't even mention. The Bible says they're too shameful to mention. Those things that are done in secret. Oh, the Lord will cleanse that, too. There's no sin too great. Christ's death is sufficient and efficient for the believer, no matter how great their sin. to Christ tonight, don't put it off. I challenge you to call upon the Lord. Let's close in a word of prayer. If you want to come to Christ tonight, you can come right where you are in your seat. You can just say, Lord, save me. I need Christ. I need pardoning mercy. If you want to speak to someone tonight after the meeting, if you want to speak to the minister, the youth pastor, myself, whoever, You come and speak to us. You don't need to speak to us to be saved, but if you want more clarity, you come. Our Father in heaven, we pray that Thou wouldst take Thy word and use it. We know, again, it's not the enticing words of man's wisdom. Lord, it's a demonstration of the Spirit and power. So we pray that Thou wouldst work. We commit at this meeting to Thee. In Christ's name, Amen.