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[4:12] Thank you. We shall turn now to Hebrews chapter 2 and read it verse 3.
[4:25] Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
[4:39] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. now some of you may know that this week in Edinburgh we've had special services intended to bring local churches together and to bring some renewal of vision hopefully and also to reach out of God's word to those of non-free church adherents and on Tuesday evening of this week I was asked to conduct that service and I took as my text the words of Hebrews 2.3 and I'm taking the same text again tonight not because I was all that happy with the message but because the pressure of my providence and I hope that it may not be altogether inappropriate to go over the same theme with this particular congregation now if I can just remind you of the context within which those words are said this epistle is called by the writer a word of exhortation and that means that our thought is always a tremendously theological letter yet the theology is never there simply for its own sake it is always there as part of the word of exhortation it is there because of its very direct relevance to the problems of this particular group of Christians and that's why we have in the epistle in a quite marvelous way the constant interspersing of doctrine and application it is a long succession of great blocks of theology and sometimes that theology is of enormous depth and enormous complexity sometimes indeed the writer stops to say that he cannot go on because he feels that readers can no longer follow him for example on the threshold of discussing Melchizedek he abandons the discussion because the Aaron in his view ready for it and yet for all its depth and all its complexity he is always anxious to bring it home to the people in the most directly practical way and that's why we have so often after the teaching the exhortation let us, let us, let us now we have in chapter 1 one of those great blocks of teaching concerned above all with the person and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ but that culminates in the application of chapter 2 therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed and that goes on for several verses which include the words of our text how shall we escape
[8:40] if we neglect so great salvation so always you have this monumental teaching you have the scaling of the great heights of Christology and yet every time that is followed by the desire to bring that great teaching to bear upon the problems and the lifestyle and the weaknesses of the people of God just because the salvation is so great he has to exhort us to give the more earnest heed to it now I want first of all tonight to reflect on this question where does the greatness of our salvation lie and the answer to that in the apostles view is quite simply the salvation is great because Christ is a great savior the salvation derives all its greatness from the grandeur of the savior himself and the savior's own greatness is analyzed for as I suggest in four different directions four great ways in which Christ is great he is great first of all in relation to the angels we're told in verse 4 of chapter 1 that he has been made so much better than the angels he has by inheritance a more excellent name than they now the angels of course were magnificent beings we saw how when one came to Mary we saw how she was struck with fear we see so often in the Old Testament the same situation that when those messengers come those to whom they come are so awestruck they are so terribly afraid we see at the resurrection of Christ when they come to the tomb the woman find there an angel at the entrance and the same effect of fear we see in the church at Colossae that the believers were even tempted to worship those angels because of their grandeur and we ourselves can reflect upon that greatness and say that these angelic beings they are raised above so many of our limitations they don't have our physical limitations they seem to have by our standards massive intellects and beyond that still they have kept the glory of their first estate and yet for all their glory for all their superhuman dignity
[12:04] Christ we are told is greater these angels are only ministering or serving spirits they are sent forth to do his will to fulfill whatever his pleasure is he is their creator he is their lord he at last is their judge it is to him that at last they are answerable you remember Milton's words in a sonnet on his blindness referring to those angels thousands he says at his bidding speed and post or land and ocean without rest thousands millions millions of angels speed and post but at whose bidding at his bidding at the bidding of
[13:06] Jesus Christ he is one who is in the very core of his being greater than the angels he is their creator he is their lord he is their judge and then secondly we find the lord's grandeur brought to light in relation to the universe you go back into verse 2 of chapter 1 his son who is the heirs as the writer of all things and by whom also he made the worlds what is Christ's relation to the world it is quite simply the writer says he is the heir of the world he is the one for whom it is he is the one whom it is to glorify he is the one to whom all its resources belong and beyond that still he is the one who has made it by whom also he made the worlds
[14:15] Christ is the word through whom God spoke the universe into being he is the great creator and furthermore says the writer he is also the one in verse three who upholds all things by the word of his power upholds it is a much maybe more simple word than that he is the one who is carrying the world the one who is ferrying it the one who is supporting it sustaining it maintaining it carrying it directionally to its appointed destination and so we have this magnificent picture of a world made by Christ of a world that is being carried by Christ of a world that exists for Christ and to a very large extent that picture is reflecting its glory on Christ himself because you bear in mind how magnificent and complex this universe is and we are told that Christ is the intelligence that planned it all
[15:37] Christ is the power that called it all into being Christ is the wisdom that governs it Christ is the wisdom that upholds it not only this earth but the whole galaxy of which we are a part and the whole aggregate of galaxies and constellations all of these in the same way dependent upon the Savior so that not only do the angels speed and post at his bidding but every galaxy moves at his bidding every atom every electron moves at his bidding and that reflects so marvelously on the glory of Christ himself but we ought never to forget that it also reflects on the universe that the universe is always glories because it is Christ's universe
[16:41] I know I came over this last week and I know that I say so terribly often but it's something that to me is of monumental importance that this world this environment of which we are sometimes so afraid so frightened of what our signs may bring to light or what our technology may harness of the world's resources it is enormously important that we should see this world as itself Christ's world as a world in which there is nothing there is a contradiction of what Jesus is it is in my view in principle impossible that in the last analysis there can be in this universe anywhere a black hole there can be surely no place where the sovereignty and the logic and the order of
[17:53] Christ do not apply we know that there are aspects of our environment to which Newtonian physics do not apply there may also be aspects to which even Einsteinian physics may not apply and that for practical purposes in the present state of human knowledge may be a black hole because we have no other physics to apply but in the last analysis I believe that the logic of Christ is all pervasive remember Pascal's great word the universe was designed by a pure mathematician and I'm saying that Christ was that great mathematician and I'm saying that when we describe this physical universe in terms of mathematical formulae we are simply expressing our own ciphers in terms of our own logic elucidating a proportion of that wonderful coherence and wisdom and logic with which
[19:18] Christ has filled his own universe and it is in that great context that God has told us to subdue the earth and I think that Christians ought to move forward towards the frontiers of human science and human knowledge with tremendous confidence because they are facing a Christ centred environment and they are on the search for the laws of Christ at last I believe as a Christian in what I may call Christo nomus if I may use the word nomus law I believe that Christ's laws are everywhere I don't believe in laws of nature I don't believe that biblically there is such a thing as nature nature is an abstraction it is a poetic concept not a biblical one or a scientific one but I believe there are laws of Christ I believe that geological laws and biological laws and astrophysical laws and the laws of nuclear reaction fission fusion that these are all
[20:30] Christ's laws because he is the one who made the world and there I find the basis for the most unbounded optimism and a basis also to assert the contemporary and timeless relevance of my faith this world is Christ's and I think it's tremendous is that in Christ I find not only my redeemer and my savior but I find in Christ my creator I believe that I find the laws of Christ not only in the doctrine of the atonement and the justification but that I find Christ in the correlations of the universe itself that there I have Christ's laws and there I have expression of the mind and the logos of God so he is great in relation to the angels and he is great in relation to the universe and he is great thirdly in relation to God
[21:37] God has in these last days spoken unto us by his son in fact you'll see that word his is in italics and what the writer says is God has spoken to us by a son we have this great contrast between the words spoken by the prophets who are great men specially chosen by God and to serve to men by God but over against those men those prophets who were human there is this word spoken by one who is in a special relation to God and who is defined as being a son and this one speaks to us of God out of his own marvelous and intimate familiarity with God he speaks as a son speaks about his father so he is great in that he is
[22:40] God's son but then that is expanded for us quite sublimely in verse three as a son he is the brightness of his father's glory he is the reflection of it he is the outshining of it he is the splendor in Christ we see the glory in fact in the epistle of James Christ is called simply the glory and I remind you that one of the great Jewish words for God was simply the glory and the Jews spoke of the Shekinah that dwelt the glory between the cherubim above the mercy seat Christ is the glory of God and Christ is the express image of God he is
[23:40] God's son he is God's glory he is God's express image the express image of God's being that is express image to the point of identity he is of the same substance he is one and the same being he has the same nature has the same attributes has the same titles has the same functions has the same prerogatives as God the word was God Jesus Christ is Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah and it may very well be that we say to ourselves this is only theology and yet what are we as Christians but people who believe in the absolute deity of
[24:47] Jesus Christ there is nothing more fundamental in our faith than that and that is what must govern the whole of religious emotions the fact that he is God that in Christ I do not confront an expert on religion and I don't confront a prophet but in Christ I confront the reality which is God himself and that means a reality that I cannot manage and that I cannot define and I cannot bound and I cannot handle a reality before which I must fall down is dead to which I must cling in the affirmation my Lord and my God and it is a large part of our business of pictures to ask you to face the challenge of this whether tonight you respond to
[25:58] Christ it's a response that does justice to this mighty fact that he is God we have no right to feel cozy to feel secure we have no right to feel that we have many or multiple options whom we stand here because in him we face God we face otherness we face disturbingness we face the divine glory mind and moment And everyT He is great great in that he is God.
[27:01] He is not a teacher about God simply. Not a messenger from God. Not an expert on God. But he is himself the mighty God.
[27:16] Remember how in Catechisms long ago we learned that God is a spirit infinite, eternal and unchangeable. I often wonder whether Christians realize that their faith means in its essence the belief that Jesus Christ is infinite, eternal and unchangeable.
[27:43] His name shall be the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And I sometimes wonder whether Christians in their own personal devotion gave him the place that is due to him.
[28:03] Do we in fact worship Jesus? Do we sing our Psalms to Jesus? Have we ever prayed to Jesus the way Paul did when he said, I besought the Lord thrice?
[28:18] Who is he in yonder stall? At his feet the shepherds fall. Tis the Lord a wonder story tis the Lord the King of glory.
[28:38] At his feet we humbly fall. That is a great question. do we really fall at his feet?
[28:52] Crown him, crown him Lord of all. And so the writer says to us he is great with regard to the angels, great with regard to the universe, great with regard to God.
[29:11] And I want to add just one thing more from a slightly later point in the same epistle and that is this. He is great in his compassion.
[29:24] I have drawn ineffectually on the sublimest elements of New Testament Christology. I refer to supremacy over the angels, his lordship over the universe, his sonship of God.
[29:43] And I face the problem that the moment I do that and do it exclusively as I pile layer of magnificence upon layer of magnificence that I distance Christ from his people.
[30:02] And I think that's a real problem in so much of historic Christology. reality. I believe that the medieval church got into enormous difficulty for the very, very curious reason that it emphasized exclusively the deity of Christ.
[30:24] Christ. And I'm not always confident that we ourselves are avoiding the mistake of that exclusive emphasis.
[30:36] Now you must not misunderstand me. As far as I'm concerned, the deity of Christ is the single most important doctrine in the whole Christian faith.
[30:46] But at the same time, it lies at the heart of a religion that this Christ became incarnate.
[30:58] That is, Christ became enfleshed. Christ became a man. You bear in mind, if you will bear with me, it wasn't the divine nature that became incarnate.
[31:16] It wasn't the trinity that became incarnate. It was one person of the trinity, Jesus Christ. He became human.
[31:31] And that is what I want to grasp. That when I say to you that he is so great above angels, above the universe, that he is very God, a very God.
[31:44] That you do not say emotional I can't relate to. I can't go to him with problems. I can't go to him for sympathy.
[31:55] I can't go to him with my sins to confess them. I can't cry to him and say that I'm crumbling, that I'm breaking up under all kinds of strains because that man has made Christ too remote.
[32:09] But I want to be Christ into the context of our own human condition. He was made flesh. You have the marvelous word in Hebrews 4, he can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
[32:28] He has this tremendous capacity for fellow feeling because he has taken our nature, he has taken a human body precisely like our human body.
[32:43] He has taken a human psychology exactly like our human psychology. And in that humanness, he has stood beside us in the valley of the shadow of death.
[32:58] He has gone through fetal existence, gone through infant existence, gone through childhood, gone through adolescence, youth, gone through manhood.
[33:09] He has been with us in all the humanness of a race. He has known physical pain, he has known emotional pain, he has known social pain and loneliness, he has known spiritual pain, he has known spiritual darkness, he has known desertion by God, he has known misunderstanding, understanding, he has known criticism, he has known persecution, he has known to be accused of the most appalling sins like blasphemy, he has known what it is to be even without the sense of the love of God, to be at the most critical hour of his life, when he most needed men, to be forsaken by men, and when he most needed God, to feel that he had been forsaken by God, and I cling to it, that he understands, that he knows what it is to be human, knows what it is to be as a human in the valley of the shadow of death, knows what pain is, knows what loneliness is, knows what temptation is, knows what spiritual darkness is, it is the truth expressed in one of the loveliest utterances of our songs, for he remembers we are dust, and he our frame well knows,
[34:56] I think it's quite easy for people, and quite justifiable for you sometimes, to say of ministers and pastors, what does he know, because he hasn't been in my pain, and he hasn't borne my burdens, and hasn't known my sorrow, and what does he know, but we can never say it of Christ, he remembers, you can't say to him, what does he, almighty God, know, about being dust, about being a frail, earthen, human vessel, what does he know, he remembers, I believe that Christ has never, never forgotten the temptations in the desert, he has never forgotten that day when he was parched with thirst, and met the woman of Samaria, he has never, never forgotten the night of the betrayal, and how the disciples fled, never forgotten the dreadful and horrid fear of death of the cross of Calvary, never forgotten the pain, never forgotten the shame, never, never forgotten the anguish, those things are a devil, just as you remember the most painful experiences of your life, so those things are tonight part of the compassion of God, it isn't simply that
[36:40] God knows by omniscience as an observer outside my situation, but God knows by suffering, by experience, by going through those situations for himself, and that's why I bring this element in as a fourth element in his greatness, I don't bring it in as a qualification, I don't say that he is great, but he is compassionate, I don't say he is great, but he is sympathetic, I say that he is great in his compassion, I propose to you that that compassion is one of the greatest and the most sublime things about the Lord, that the shepherd has himself walked this way, he knows the pasture, and he knows the perils and the wolves, he knows the problems, he knows the strains, and he knows the stresses, and that's why we shall not be tested above what we are able to bear, so the salvation is great, because he is a great savior, and I say to you very, very briefly, that from that personal greatness of Christ as savior, four other things follow, it follows, first of all, that in him, we have a great revelation, we have in
[38:18] Christ a magnificent unfolding of the mind of God, we have in Christ a mighty word about God, a word spoken not by a theologian, not spoken by a prophet, but spoken by a son, a son who had been with God, the word was God, and the word was with God, the son who knew everything about God, and spoke the word of God's love, of God's holy love, Paul said of him, in Christ there are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, I don't believe that Christ as a human mind, knew everything about God, and I don't even believe that Christ told us all that his human mind knew about
[39:22] God, I don't even believe that the apostle Paul told us all that he knew about God, and I'm thrilled by that, because God has told me more than I can manage to handle, and I look forward to new angles, and new aspects, and new insights, but in Christ, we have the final and definitive revelation on the side of the grave, we have a word spoken about God by someone who knows, and that word says that God is love, and I think that's a very difficult word to believe, because our own consciences accuse us, and our consciences tell us that we don't deserve God's love, and yet Christ comes and says there is love, there is forgiveness, but yet with him forgivenesses that fear thou mayest be, that is the glory that
[40:27] Christ has spoken, out of the bosom of God, a revelation that speaks of God's love, in Christ also, we have the great answer to sin, a great salvation, because we're told in verse three, when he had by himself purged our sins, and how beautiful that is, there is a reality called sins, there is a more poignant reality called our sins, our sins, and what a problem those sins are, what a problem that past is, the burden of it, the guilt of it, the shame of it, the horror of it, the hell of it, and where do we find our answer?
[41:29] By himself he purged our sins, he is a great sacrifice because he is a great savior, he gave himself for us, he poured his own blood, he himself bore our sins, and so embodied to the tree, he became the lamb of God that bears away the sin of the world.
[41:58] Remember, now listen to you, who's dealing with your sins? sins? Suppose we're asked that, who is dealing with your sins?
[42:11] And I put it to you again, what's being done about your sins? Well, some pretend that there are no sins, and some are depressed about their sins, and some are fatalistic about their sins, and they say, well, what can I do?
[42:29] Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hands, and they just accepted, I'm a sinner, and they accept, it seems to me, some people accept, well, I'm going to hell, and that's it, and they're quite fatalistic about it.
[42:43] what is being done about your sins? There is a great salvation that says that Christ will purge your sins.
[42:56] He is great himself in his identity and stature, and he is great as a purger of sins. He does a magnificent job of purging sins.
[43:07] There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's maze, and sinners plunge beneath this flood, lose all their guilty stains.
[43:21] Great hymn, but it's a hymn that expresses only great biblical sentiment, ye wash thou me, and then I shall be whiter than the snow. Please don't pretend there are no sins.
[43:35] Please don't simply get depressed about sin. Please don't become fatalistic about sin. please take them to the great high priest, because he is magnificent at purging sin.
[43:50] He will wash the sin in the glory of his own obedience. He will cover it with a marvel of his own sacrifice. He by himself purged our sin.
[44:03] In our salvation, there is a great revelation. In our salvation, there is a great answer to sin. And again this, behind our salvation, there are great resources.
[44:21] Great resources, because where does this Christ sit? He sits on the right hand of the majesty on high. He sits in a place of power. He sits in a place of ownership.
[44:34] He is the one who is the heir of everything. Has he got the resources for salvation? I think that's a question worth asking.
[44:47] It's worth asking because the program or the project of salvation is so monumental, so mind boggling in its aspirations, so daring in its conception.
[45:01] The best way to define that conception, the breadth of it and the glory of it is to remind you that salvation means that one day Christ will present me faultless in the presence of his own glory.
[45:18] What is God trying to do? God is trying to make me faultless. And I think that you and I should pause and ask ourselves, have we ever seen what a tremendous and terrific and intimidating undertaking that is.
[45:38] But then we see the glory of it, that he has the resources. What has Christ got that can give me the confidence that he can make me perfect?
[45:51] And the great answer is he has everything. He has all things. He has the world. He has history.
[46:02] he has the Holy Spirit. He has the power of the blood that cleanses. He can move heaven and earth for my salvation.
[46:21] It's a salvation that's great because of the resources behind it. That's why we speak of invincible grace.
[46:32] Sometimes spoken of as irresistible grace. But you bear in mind that the irresistible is a Latin irresistible that meant not that people couldn't resist it but that people couldn't overcome it.
[46:47] I believe that often we fight against our own salvation. We fought against our own conversion.
[46:58] We fight against our own salvation. But we can never fight effectually because Christ will overcome his grace his invincible grace because his grace is God's determination to save.
[47:15] it's a great salvation because it is a great revelation. It is a great answer to sin. It has great resources. But I'll add one thing more to the analysis.
[47:30] It is a great salvation because it is the only salvation. There is no alternative. There is no choice.
[47:43] We're not in some kind of spiritual supermarket. look at a vast range of brands, a wide variety of options.
[47:54] There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. It's great because it speaks a great word.
[48:06] It is a great answer to sin. It has great resources. And it's great because it's the only one there is. I believe that other religions can give you great mental enjoyment.
[48:22] They can give you great emotional thrills and exhilaration. They can give you great optimism. They can give you great courage and great zeal and great fanaticism.
[48:38] love. But this is the only one that can save. It's the only one that can present me faultless before the presence of God's glory with exceeding joy.
[48:52] joy. I believe that one day grace will have done such a marvelous job of me that God will be thrilled when he sees me.
[49:05] In the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. But I don't believe that that is a joy I myself will feel.
[49:16] It's a joy that God the Father, God in Christ, that he will know when he sees how beautiful we are. And he will say rejoicingly he's just like the eldest brother.
[49:32] He's just like the firstborn. He's just like my only begotten son. He is conformed to the image of my son. And that is the great glory of our salvation.
[49:45] That it has the exclusive capability to make me Christ like. And then as I close, this terrible danger that we can neglect it.
[50:01] It seems to be important for you to bear in mind of what I'm looking to develop it tonight. The writer was not speaking to unconverted people.
[50:13] that he's saying to the Christians there is a danger that you can neglect the great salvation.
[50:26] Christians can neglect their salvation. I believe it's quite possible that some of us tonight who are Christians are resting on our oars.
[50:42] We're no longer working out your own salvation. We're no longer struggling, no longer striving, no longer able to say for me to live is Christ, no longer saying this one thing I do.
[50:58] That is no longer a priority. We're neglecting our own salvation. We're not standing before the glory of Christ.
[51:09] We're not immersing ourselves in the great revelation God has given to us. We're not bringing our sins to the great remedy God has provided.
[51:21] We're not availing ourselves of the resources God has made available. We're neglecting our own salvation. We're Christians who elect but for the moment it's the cares of the world.
[51:38] It's the receitfulness of riches. It is professional pressure and promotion prospects. It is our house, our car, our home, our emotional condition.
[51:51] Those things are obsessing us and we are neglecting our salvation. and we often wonder what's going wrong with us and why don't we have the early liberty and the early power?
[52:03] Why aren't we holy like McChain and Bonner were holy? And the terrible, terrible answer is because we are neglecting our salvation. We are not working at our salvation.
[52:14] I'm not working at it the way those men work. God, is it important enough? That is a great problem. Are we in earnest about our soul's condition?
[52:28] But I want to apply it as I close to those who aren't Christians and the way that they're neglecting the salvation. Some of you neglect it by simply not giving it a hearing.
[52:49] Remember the seed that fell by the wayside. Before it penetrated our prejudices, our inattention, the birds of the air came and took it away.
[53:07] Some of you, even as I say to this very moment, won't hear me saying that you won't even know what text I preached on tonight.
[53:22] Nothing has gotten through. Absolutely nothing. I'd be as well going and writing on the pavement, throwing the seed in the middle of the road, because absolutely nothing is getting through.
[53:40] It may be a self-defense mechanism because somehow you are frightened of being converted. It will spoil your plans, and mar your prospects. But that's one way which will neglect the salvation, by simply refusing to give it a hearing.
[54:01] Another possibility is that we temporize. We're neglected by putting it off. the classic example of that is Felix who said to Paul he trembled when Paul preached.
[54:21] He had heard the message, certainly heard the message. But he said, go away for the present, and when I have more conveniences, I will send for you. And maybe you're making mental notes that at some time in the future, you must think this business through.
[54:41] You are planning it, and one day you will deal with your soul, and you're certain of that. In fact, you are so certain that you have no spiritual anxiety whatever.
[54:55] It's all under control because you intend to deal with it. And for so many people, the intention is as good as the fact, and you sleep soundly because you made up your mind that yes, I do intend to deal with it, and we only talk about it because it's under control.
[55:18] I'm not going to dramatize that. So far as we know, Felix never found the more convenient season. And for so many who have made that resolution, it has been so terribly true that God has come and said, though fool, this night thy soul there should be required of thee.
[55:44] And people went to hell with a mental note that they intended to go to heaven. They've temporized. So sometimes we don't listen, and sometimes we simply temporize.
[56:00] And sometimes we let it slip by. We drift past, which is one of the figures in verse one of chapter two.
[56:12] We let them slip. In fact, it's a nautical metaphor of a ship coming into the wharf, coming into the pier. and it's getting closer and closer and closer to the pier.
[56:28] But then, to everyone's astonishment, it doesn't stop. It approaches the pier slowly, slowly, slowly, inexorably.
[56:39] and people wait for it to stop. But it doesn't stop. It moves slowly, slowly, slowly away.
[56:56] And at last, it's so far away that it's quite impossible to throw out the mooring ropes. and there are so many people, so many young people, so many students, and that's exactly their position.
[57:13] You can't see them. They come to Aberdeen in October, and they drift, they move in closer and closer to Christ, closer and closer still.
[57:27] And everyone is so glad and so confident and so welcoming and so optimistic. Closer and closer still they come to the church very regularly, every Lord's Day, and maybe midweek as well.
[57:41] Very, very close. But then they keep on moving, moving, moving. Then they're at the point, and then they're moving away, away, away.
[57:54] And by the time the end of February comes, all you see is the way downstream, galloping, galloping, galloping, way carried by the current into the great ocean of the world beyond.
[58:15] They'll never again be so close to Christ. Shall we say it again? Never again, shall we? Never again so close to Christ.
[58:27] Young lives, but in many ways those young lives have finished. They have reached their climax, they have made the most important decision of their lives in the time of the 18, the decision not to throw out a heaving line, not to grasp of the peer.
[58:54] That is a great picture. Great salvation, a great savior, and they're drifting past it. all I want is this.
[59:09] I want that to be referred to in verse one of chapter two. I simply want earnest heed, attention, the listening.
[59:25] It may be that you listen and you reject. It may be that with your mighty intellect you will find some philosophical or religious flaw in a Christian faith, maybe.
[59:44] But please listen. Listen earnestly. Look at the claims of Christ. Look at the promises of Christ.
[59:58] Look at the warnings settled by Christ. all I want is earnestness. I believe that a faith so glorious in its conception as a Christian faith, so mighty in its influence, so marvelous in its consolation, so boundlessly thrilling in its motivation, rejection.
[60:30] I believe it deserves more than a summary and a facile rejection. It deserves that you give it earnest heed.
[60:42] to just pray. Oh, Lord, we ask thee in grace to make thyself known to us, to give us the strength of thy spirit to enable us to give more earnest heed, and to realize that there is always a place for more earnest heed, no matter how earnest we are, or how faithful we have been, that there is still room for more.
[61:18] Grant, O Lord, that no one here will drift past salvation, but that each one of us may accept it, and move himself to Christ, and that we may move into eternity and self-united to him.
[61:35] For thy glory's sake, Amen. Amen.