Address—Danny Allan
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Thanks for welcome everyone, uh, to the meeting this evening, especially after a hot day when you're doing lots of running and jumping and playing. I know it's uh, difficult sometimes to stay awake after day like this. Uh, today I can test myself. I did probably too much of that. So, umm, and I also know that, uh, I have six children, as you probably know, and none of them have an attention span that lasts a full 60 minutes, so.
You're probably not going to have 60 minutes, uh, this evening.
But I wonder if we could begin by singing #53 in the appendix. And what I really had in my heart was just the last verse. So if we could sing #53 in the appendix, just the last verse.
Just open with prayer.
Our loving Father and our God, we thank thee tonight for the privilege to have Thy word. We thank Thee that we can open it. And we thank Thee that after a day full of activities that we can have a time of quietness to consider the Lord Jesus, God's well beloved Son and Father, tonight we ask for help. We ask for help for the speaker, and we ask for help for the hearts that would listen.
Let in all things, the Lord Jesus our Savior would be exalted, and if there's any here that do not know the Lord Jesus as Savior our Father, we would just pray.
That through the working of thy Spirit, that they would be drawn to this one, to thy well beloved. We just ask this in his worthy and precious name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, Amen.
Well, you can probably tell from the hymn what I had on my heart today. Actually, I had something entirely different until yesterday, a breaking of bread when, uh, it was brought up about the Lord Jesus, uh, or we have peace with God our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, and we've been reconciled to him through the Lord Jesus.
And so those two thoughts and and conjunction knowing that there was going to be a solar eclipse today.
I would like to begin by turning to Luke chapter 23, and I had in my heart to speak about two miracles that happened in connection with the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.
Luke, chapter 23.
And verse 44.
And it was about the 6th hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour, and the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
And if you can turn over, just keep your fingers here because we're going to return there. But if you can turn over to Hebrews chapter one.
Hebrews chapter one and verse one.
God, Who at sundry times, and in divers manners vacant time passed under the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the world, Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself.
Purged our sins.
Sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
I'm not going to read verses 4 through the end of the chapter. It is really the Lord Jesus what it is, uh, it is comparing him to and, and saying how much better he is than the angels. But I'd like to pick up in chapter 2 and verse one. 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 words spoken by angels with steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompensive reward.
00:05:02
How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
Maybe we can just turn back to Luke chapter 23 so I had in my heart this evening to speak about.
Two miracles. And I don't know about you, but when I I've I was brought up in a Christian family and I suspect most of the folks here were brought up in a Christian family. And you read stories in the Bible over and over and over again. So often, in fact, that sometimes I think we miss things that are right there in front of our face.
And we'll read a chapter or we'll read verses again for the 526th time. And all of a sudden.
Something new is drawn out of us for us. Uh, drawn out of that verse for us.
And as I was reading and meditating on this, there was two things that struck me in these two verses. And actually these two miracles are recorded in three of the gospels. It's not just Luke. I picked Luke and we're going to turn to the other gospels later on, but I chose it in this, uh, I chose to read it in Luke because they are sequential. Two things. One was, it says about the 6th hour, there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour.
It was the first miracle that wasn't a natural phenomenon. Today we had a solar eclipse, umm, or a partial 1 here I guess, but there wasn't a darkness over the whole earth until the 9th hour. This was a miracle. And if you look at the time in history when this was, I believe the Passover was uh, the first equinox after the first full moon. It's impossible actually to have, uh, an eclipse at that time of the year. But even if it wasn't.
Impossible, let's say.
Stipulate for a moment that it was we were all outside. I was really excited today at 1:00, I thought, OK, I'm going to run down Jonathan Gritton's handing out these solar glasses. I'm going to see the sun pass in front of the the moon pass in front of the sun and I'm going to see the sun being dark. And, and I watched and I watched and I watched. It took an hour and 20 minutes from the when we first saw that little.
Uh, clip on the edge until the sun was mostly covered. An hour and 20 minutes on and an hour and 20 minutes off.
The whole period of time took that long, and here it says the sun was darkened.
From the 6th hour there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour. And so the first miracle I wanted to speak about was this one, the miracle of darkness over the earth.
I don't know whether you have ever.
Experience darkness. I don't I don't know the the the word of God does not see fit to give us the details of whether it was completely pitch black or not. I presume that it was, but I don't want to go ahead of Scripture. But it does say that there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour. And I looked up on my phone this afternoon I was seeing whether there was any other recordings of a darkness over the earth at this time and there was there was a writer in.
Rome that recorded it. There was a writer in Egypt that recorded this same darkness over all the earth.
Uh, until the ninth hour, 3 hours of darkness, and I don't know whether you've experienced pitch blackness that I have.
And it is a very serious and troubling thing, in fact. So I like to go scuba diving sometimes, Umm, and my wife probably smiles at that because I like to scuba dive a lot. UMM and I go cave diving. And when you go cave diving, you can be a mile under the earth and if you turn off your light.
There is pitch blackness. I remember we were doing a dive, uh, in a cave. It was called Vacaha. We were in a little restriction in the person I was with turned off his light. And you know that when someone does that, they want to, to, uh, experience the darkness of The Cave. And so I turned off my light as well.
And it was one time in my life that I can say I was truly, I don't know what the word is, but it spoke to me in a way I, I probably the word was scared. There was nothing wrong, but you couldn't see a single thing. There was a blackness in that cave that I can't emphasize to. You go out on a night like tonight, or you go into your house and you turn off lights. There is still some light.
But it says here that there was.
The and it was about the 6th hour and there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour, pitch blackness. And this was the most unusual time of the day for this to happen. The six hour. If you go, if you look at the Jewish calendar, the hours begin at 6:00 AM and so the 6th hour will be noon. And so from noon until 3:00 there was this.
00:10:24
Darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour. This was a miracle.
Now if you in your mind go through the miracles that the Lord Jesus records for us, the Word of God records for us in the Bible.
Most of the miracles that we read about are to glorify the Lord Jesus. It's the healing of the sick. It's the feeding of the 5000. It's the turning of water into wine. All of these are to give attestation to the person of the Lord Jesus and who he was.
But there was no healing here of anyone sick. Well, there was tremendous salvation that came from this. We're going to get to that. But this miracle, there was not any immediate need of the people around. There was simply a darkness over all the earth, and I believe earth. What I have enjoyed on this particular verse is that there was three reasons for this darkness.
The first was that it was a testimony of God to who this person was that was hanging on the cross.
And we know this, if you go down to verse 47, it said now in the centurion saw what was done, He didn't see the second miracle. It says the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. We're going to speak about that as well. He didn't see that miracle. He was standing there at the cross and what he observed was the darkness falling over the earth for three hours. And what does he say? He says certainly this was a righteous man.
And so one of the things that I want to impress upon you that was the result of this miracle is that it gave an attestation. It was God's seal that this.
Man on the cross is the Son of God.
That is incredible to think about.
That God sent his Son down to this earth to be crucified for me and for you. And if there's any young person or any child in this room that is not accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior, the Lord Jesus, God sent his Son for you and it was in love. And if this is not testament of that, I do not know what is. You know, how many times have we read?
The verse for God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son. I am almost certain that every single person in this room tonight can quote that verse to me. You know, I was reading that verse. Forgive me. My family has heard me say this many times, but actually let's turn there. John chapter 3 and verse 16.
Because something.
In this verse stood out to me about 18 months ago that I enjoyed.
That had to do with God sending his Son, God giving his seal on this one.
And so I'd like to begin not with verse 16. I would like to begin just with the first part of verse 10. Jesus answered and said unto him, verse 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
Something jumped out at me that I had never thought about, and I don't know, maybe you have thought about it, but the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. This whole Bible, of course, is the word of God.
But the words of the Lord Jesus are often recorded in red, and if you have a red letter edition, you'll see that John chapter 63 and verse 16, the words are in red. So Lord Jesus himself spoke those words. And why did this stand out to me in a way that it never had before? It was the Lord Jesus who said this. He said, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. He spoke those words to those around him.
And who would know the father more than the Son?
I've used this example before, but if Jake said Jake is my son, he's sitting here. If he said to you my father loves my mother so much that and he would continue on with that statement, that would mean a whole lot more than if someone else in the room was to say Danny loves Heidi so much that because who would know the heart of the father more than the son who is with him from all eternity?
00:15:00
And why was it that John 316 was at the very beginning of the ministry of the Lord Jesus? It was almost like he couldn't wait to tell people I came down. God loved you so much that he sent me to die for you.
And so this was God's testament, the Lord Jesus.
Himself in uh, chapter 3 and verse 16, he said, God so loved the world that he sent me. And now on the cross of Calvary in three hours of darkness, God gives testament that this is indeed my only begotten son. And so I would submit to you that the first reason for that darkness perhaps is to give glory to this one on the cross. Certainly this was a righteous man.
And so I enjoyed another thought as to why there was darkness over all the land and for three hours. And that was.
That God had to cover or hide from the eyes of man what was going to happen to the Lord Jesus that it was.
So significant that man's eyes could not be witnessed to what was to happen in those three hours of darkness. And you know, it's astonishing to me if you read this chapter, we've read it all many, many times. If you read until this point, there it is extremely detailed. There's not many accounts in the Bible that are as detailed as the hours leading up to these three hours.
And afterwards it is extremely detailed as well.
But for three hours.
There is nothing said about that time. Nothing.
At the end of it, the Lord Jesus Christ with a loud voice we know, and he says, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
But we don't read of anything during those three hours. Now, if you had three hours of darkness and you were an author and you were umm.
The historian at that time, my father, would be disappointed in me.
Josephus, umm Josephus wrote umm, extensively for, for the Romans, the history that occurred. And if that was to happen to Josephus, if that was to happen to almost anyone, if something of that magnitude happened, darkness over all the land for three hours, you would think that there'd be something that they would write about. And yet in Matthew and in Mark and in Luke, we read of nothing except that from the.
Hour. There was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour.
I believe that we need to tread carefully.
In trying to say what actually happened during those three hours, I don't know what did, but I do know the words of the Lord Jesus. In John chapter 18 He said the cup which my Father hath given me to drink.
Shall I not drink it? And we read over and over in the Old Testament of the waves and the billows that passed over the Lord Jesus. But we are never given witness in these verses to that. What we are given witness to is His words at the end of it. Not in this book, not in Luke. Let's turn back to Matthew. We'll turn there.
And I want to make a distinction between what we read in Matthew and what we read in the Gospel of Luke as well. Matthew chapter 27.
And verse 45, this is almost an identical account as we have in Mark.
But in Matthew chapter 27 and verse 45 it says now from the 6th hour there was darkness over all the land until the 9th hour.
And about the 9th hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani, that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there when they heard that said, This man call us for Elias. And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a Reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus when he had cried again with a loud voice.
Sealed it up the ghost and the veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth dig quake and the rocks rent and it continues on. There is a difference in Matthew and Mark from the Gospel of Luke. I don't know whether you've ever noticed that. I had hadn't noticed that until I actually was looking at that this this week in Matthew and Mark it says that from the 6th hour until the 9th hour there was this darkness and the Lord cries.
00:20:03
Uh, at the end of it, Eli, Eli Lama Sabachthani.
And it goes on. And after all of that occurs and we know the seven things of the Lord Jesus on the cross, it's not my intent to get into them.
There is my God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? I thirst. Umm, there is, uh.
The file and and finally Father into thy hands. Oh sorry, it is finished is the next one. We get that in John and then we get the one that we have in Luke, which is father into thy hands. I commend my spirit. Now here's the distinction between the two in Luke chapter 23. It says the sun was darkened in the veil of the temple was rent in the midst and when Jesus had cried with a loud voice he he said father into thy hands I command my spirit and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. It was dark.
The veil of the temple was rend and then he gave up the ghost. In Matthew and Mark, that is not the order that we have and I do not believe this is a mistake because there are no mistakes in the Word of God. In Matthew and Mark there is 3 hours of darkness. The Lord Jesus cries out, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani, It doesn't have all of the sayings. It is, it is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Then he gives up the ghost, and after that.
Matthew in verse 51 and the same is true in Mark. It says, and behold, the veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom.
It speaks of the veil being rent after He dies in Matthew and Mark, but yet it speaks of it before he dies in Luke. And that was one of the things that I wanted to speak about because this darkness that covered all the land for three hours, I believe, is when Jesus bore the judgment for my sins. And I trust that He bore the sins for every person in this room.
I also believe, and I would hesitate to ever say this except that it says it in Corinthians. It says that he was made sin, and I don't.
Even know really.
What that means when I get to heaven, when we get to heaven, I'm sure we will understand in a greater way. But it says that he was made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And I believe that that happened in those three hours of darkness.
And so in Luke 23, when it says there was the sun was darkened, it says there from the 6th hour there was darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour and the sun was darkened. And immediately after that time it says and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. So it brings us to the second miracle. And I believe that these two things are connected because neither of these miracles was feeding a 5000 or healing someone who is blind or someone who is sick or turning water to wine.
This was another miracle that gave Testament God speaks through miracles.
And if he speaks through miracles, it is important that each one of us in this room, myself more than anyone, listen to what it is when He speaks.
He wasn't speaking with words. There was a darkness for three hours, but I believe he was Speaking of judgment. Sorry, that was the third thing I wanted to bring out in connection with the darkness. Darkness has to do with judgment. If you turn back and and time will prevent us from going into detail. But if you turn back to Exodus chapter 10, the very last plague, and I also believe that that is important before the first born was playing was a plague of darkness.
So deep it says, that it could be felt. God spoke to those not only who are around that cross, but all over the world in that darkness. But then he spoke a second time, I believe, after those three hours of darkness, when the veil of the temple was rend, it says in the midst. And in the other gospels, in Matthew and Mark, it says from the top to the bottom.
Now, this wasn't a veil.
Like you have in your house, you probably have curtains in your house. Do you have curtains in your house?
Yes, No, you don't. We have curtains in our house and they're not very thick. If you were pretty well, you'd have to be pretty strong, I suppose, but you could probably go and tear them. They were, they're not they're they're cloth, they're material. And if you would scissors certainly to start it, you could probably rip that curtain in in two. But it's been written that the the veil in the temple was the thickness of a man's hand. This was not just a little cloth separating the holy place.
00:25:01
In the Holy of Holies, this was a veil that separated.
The well, it did separate the holy place from the Holy of Holies, but it was a substantial veil between those two places. It was beautiful. And umm, I, I lived in Israel for a while back in 2007 and many of the people that I worked with were Orthodox Jews. And, and one of them was telling me about the temple. And he said the veil was so thick. He was talking about the, the Herodian Temple, which I guess would be the third temple, but he said.
It was so thick that it took 300 people to hang it. Now I don't know whether that was true or not, but he said that's what they learn in their orthodoxy in, in Judaism at least, that it was so heavy that it took 300 men to hang it. It was a thick, thick veil. Immediately after it says in Luke, the sun was darkened. It says the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. Now we don't have to guess.
What it was that God was trying to say, because it tells us explicitly in Hebrews chapter 10 that veil was what separated man from God through the whole Old Testament.
If you went near God, we know the stories, but if you as it reached out his hands afraid to keep the Tabernacle on the on the cart and he was instantly smitten. The Israelites when they were coming out of the land of Egypt and they were in the desert. If they approached the mountain that God was on the top of they would be struck dead. They could not approach a holy God.
God Himself, I believe, spoke in the rending of that veil from the top to the bottom. We know two things. That was rent in the midst, I believe in the middle, and it was rent from the top to the bottom. It was not done by a man, and I believe that in Luke chapter 23 we have the veil being rent immediately after.
The darkness because it was God's satisfaction with the work.
That the Lord Jesus completed on the cross. If we turn to Isaiah 53. Let's just turn there for a minute. We know these verses very well.
But in Isaiah 53 it says in verse 11 he shall see of the travail of his soul.
And shall be satisfied. I believe that speaking to those hours of darkness, God was satisfied with what the Lord Jesus had done.
And that veil was rent so that we could approach to a holy God through the blood of the Lord Jesus, through the work of the Lord Jesus.
So this is the gospel, and every single person in this room I trust knows and accepts this gospel.
God spoke in the darkness and he spoke in the rent veil, and He spoke through His Son. And so now I would like to turn over to Hebrews chapter one.
Now I have enjoyed this often.
But now for the latter half of the meeting, I said I wasn't going to speak for an hour. The next 20 minutes I would like to speak about what was accomplished on that cross, and I would like to speak to believers rather than those that are lost. God is with sundry times, verse one in divers manners, speaking time passed under the fathers, by the prophets, half in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, verse three, who being the brightness of his glory and the express.
Image of his person. God speaks to us by his Son. He spoke to us on the cross saying this is my son. Darkness over the entire earth. Remember when the the dove came out of the the sky?
The Spirit of God came down and landed on the on the Lord Jesus, and he said, this is my beloved Son and whom I am well pleased. There was only a certain number there, but God spoke to the whole earth when there was darkness.
When that veil was rent in twain, it wasn't speaking perhaps to the whole earth in that they didn't. They might not have seen it, but He spoke to everyone and He is speaking. And it is a responsibility that we have to listen to what it is that God would say to us. The book of Hebrews.
Was written not to the lost, but to those that were Hebrews or Jews who were Christians, I believe. And so when God speaks, when, when we believe, it's Paul, I, I, I believe that wrote the book of Hebrews, but it says when he has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, he has spoken to you and to me he hasn't.
00:30:18
Just written these verses to sit on a shelf and get dusty. He wants to have.
Communication and to speak with us.
And you know, as young people person growing up.
I have to confess that I didn't have many conversations with the Lord Jesus.
Even though I knew that he had rent the veil and I had access, free and unfettered access, He's still a holy God and we come.
Umm, with reverence into his presence to speak with him. But we have free access to the God of this universe, and yet we spend our time working, playing.
Uh, following the NFL scores if you're in the US, following NHL scores if you're in Canada. We care about things that are.
So short.
In the history of time, but yet it says here that God is speaking unto us by his Son. Are we listening? So what is it that he is speaking to us in saying? Now the reason why I jumped over from Hebrews one versus one to three over to Hebrews 2 is I believe that it really follows on between the two that Hebrews 2 is really a continuation.
Of the manifestation of the Son of God in the Lord Jesus, who being the brightness of His glory, we could turn back to the transfiguration.
Of the Lord Jesus that said his faith. Shawn is the Son, it says in Matthew. And if you read of Paul's account on the road to Damascus, it says it's shown above the brightness of the sun. The Son of God came down to die, to have that darkness fall over us, to speak to us, and how often.
And I'm speaking to myself as much as to the young people here. Do we listen to him?
Let's continue on in chapter 2. Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. What is it that we've heard? It's the message. It is the person of the Lord Jesus.
Verse three. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
So my exercise, one of my exercises in reading this was that we often consider those events on the cross of God speaking to us.
As the salvation of being saved. And I trust that everyone here has forgiveness of sins. But I do not believe in verse three that the greatness of this salvation, the greatness of the salvation in those three hours of darkness or the salvation in the rending of the veil had to do with our sins, just with our sins being washed away. If we turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter one, actually let's turn there, Second Corinthians chapter one.
Keep your fingers here. I'd like to come back to Hebrews, but Second Corinthians chapter one and verse.
Ten who delivered us this is Speaking of God from so great a death, that of course is the salvation from our sins and doth deliver in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us. 3 deliverances there, the deliverance from our sins, the current deliverance that we have each day, and the future deliverance that we will have.
Well, God is speaking to you and I and I believe that in the eclipse that we have today.
That God is still speaking to us.
And he wants to have that conversation. He wants us to recognize the greatness of the salvation that was accomplished on the cross. Because it wasn't just.
Our sins being washed away in the blood of the Lord Jesus. Yes that is true, but it was also the deliverance that we have.
Each day from the power of Satan, we read yesterday morning in Colossians chapter one that we've been delivered from the power of Satan and from the power of this world. We are delivered each and every day. How much do we appreciate that in the greatness of the salvation, the Lord Jesus is our great high priest. We have that in the question and answer this morning today for us.
The greatness of that salvation is not limited.
To just God speaking to us and saying, OK, you're saved and it's done. In fact, I don't know.
Of anyone in the New Testament, and I'll probably be corrected after the meeting on this, but who gave a personal testimony and said that I was saved and done and said that in a past tense. Now I know it says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, but I believe that we are being saved every day and we don't even realize it.
00:35:22
In Romans, uh, sorry, it's not Romans chapter one. Well, it is Romans chapter one. I I'm horrible at quoting verses, but I I was reading through the Bible this.
Probably makes me a uh.
Bad person. I don't know, I, I wanted to read through the Bible, not just in King James Version. So I've been reading through it in New King James Version and NASB and other translations and I was struck in umm, in other translations about the verse. Uh, where is it here? Uh, it is.
The cross is foolishness. Umm.
The preaching lacrosse verse 16 No, that's not.
I can't put my finger on it. I apologize.
1St Corinthians 1. Thank you.
In First Corinthians chapter one, yes, verse 18 for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness unto us which are saved. And I was struck that in numerous translations it says those that are being saved, it is the power of God. And so one thing that I want to emphasize to you as believers is that we are being saved each and every day and you may not even realize it.
You know.
I said I like the scuba dive and I dive sometimes with something called a rebreather. Umm and a rebreather is a different kind of system. It, it circulates air rather than exhaling air. So and it scrubs out the carbon dioxide that you exhale. And so in normal scuba diving, you would jump in the water and you'd breathe and you'd exhale and you're saved by the fact that you have air in your tank.
And having air in your tank is a you need to have air in your tank. It's a very good thing where you don't come up and but if you check beforehand that you have air in your tank, you are saved by virtue of the fact that you have sufficient gas in your tank to breathe. But in a rebreather, it's a little bit different. You jump in the water.
And it continuously circulates through that rebreather. And as you exhale, it circulates it around and you breathe it in again. And so where you are being saved through that whole dive and if for any moment it stops working.
Then you will instantly die. In fact, this is not instantly, but within within a minute, probably you would black out. In fact, this is probably not the story to tell, but two years ago I was 100 miles out on the ocean diving a wreck, the Andrea Doria umm, and I jumped in the water and almost everyone on that diving that wreck was diving rebreather. It's a very deep, uh, wreck and uh.
I jumped in with my with my buddy and we jumped in and I passed someone on the line who was decompressing.
He was 20 feet from the surface. He'd he'd done at least an hour dive because he was on his decompression. He was on the last stop. I swim by him. I give him the OK, he gives me the OK back and I keep going on the dive. I come back up out of the water and you know what the first thing I said, Well, the first thing I put my head out of the water and I see a Coast Guard plane flying over the boat. Now when you're 100 miles out to the in the ocean and you see a Coast Guard plane fly over the boat at 50 feet off the water.
It's not a pleasant feeling.
And he was on a rebreather.
That man was never found, but his rebreather stopped, we believe. We don't know for certain, but it stopped working.
He was dependent on a system to keep him alive. You are dependent on a system to keep you alive, and that is the Lord Jesus, God, in whose hands thy breath is. But it's not just our lives. It is the daily provision that we have deliverance from this world that is included here in the greatness of this salvation. Also included in the greatness of this salvation is the hope that we have of being delivered.
From all the problems around us. And you know what? I'm afraid that I do too often.
And I look around and I hope it's not true of the people in this room, but it says, how shall we escape if we neglect? It doesn't say if we reject. It says if we neglect. You know, neglecting is not rejecting. It's simply putting it off. Oh, you know, I'll, I'll do it later.
00:40:00
And I'm afraid that many times in my life I get busy with work, I get busy with the things around me. I have six children, they keep me busy. I get caught up in that. And I neglect the greatness of the salvation, not the salvation of sins, the salvation that I have each day, the salvation that I look forward to. Christ the Lord Jesus is our salvation. David says in Psalms chapter 27, he says the Lord is my life and my salvation.
If we neglect the Lord Jesus in our daily lives. If I neglect the Lord Jesus in our daily lives.
Then I will not.
Escape One other aspect of neglect that I'd like to touch on.
And this has to do with our responsibility. It brings dishonor, I believe, when we neglect the grace of God that is poured out on us.
I'm a parent and I have six children that you've probably seen running around without shoes on and dirty and they're screaming in the line for food. And when they behave in that way, when they're running around with dirty feet and dirty shirts and and things, it doesn't reflect on my children. They're three years old. That's what they do. They play in the dirt. You know what that reflects on?
And I know this because I think about it often. It reflects on me as a parent when my children who I provided for or I should be providing for, are neglecting the provisions that I have given. And so I believe there is a responsibility associated with the salvation that the Lord Jesus provides as well. He gives us all things richly to enjoy. My God shall supply all your need. And so when we go around.
Saying oh I'm so discouraged or my life is miserable or I don't know what to do about this.
We are neglecting, I believe, that it can bring dishonor on the Lord when we are not turning to Him for the salvation that He offers every single day.
For every single decision that we have to make when we neglect that.
And now I want to speak on the first part of this verse. I went backwards because the salvation on the cross in that darkness, and in the rending of the veil in God speaking to us by his Son, If we neglect that, it says, how shall we escape?
Now this verse is often given in the Gospel, but it was not written.
To unbelievers it was written to Christians who were umm, coming out of Judaism, who were Hebrews.
And so if they were believers, how could it be that it would say, how shall we escape? Does that mean you can be saved and lost again? No. What was it that they were escaping from? And this is the most solemn thing about this verse, I believe at all entirely is what was it that they were escaping from? They were escaping from Judaism.
They were escaping from traditions and what I would like to submit to you and to myself and to every person in this room.
Is that when we neglect the person of the Lord Jesus if we don't wake up every morning and want to speak to him? Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
We don't have a conversation with him in the same way that we have with.
The people who are sitting next to us in the room, then we are neglecting the greatness of our salvation. And if we neglect that, I do not, I believe that Christianity or I don't want to say Christianity, that we will not escape and I don't. I'm probably going to get in trouble for saying this, so I'm sorry in advance.
But we will not escape the meeting just being a religion. It's just something that you do. You go to meeting on Thursday because that's what you're supposed to do. You got a meeting on Lord's Day morning to break bread because that's what you're supposed to do. And that is just tradition.
And I don't want to belittle tradition. Tradition is important, but we will not escape that in our lives.
If we neglect the person of the Lord Jesus, the Lord is my light in my salvation. And so on that cross God sends his Son. For God so loved the world that he sent me 3 hours of darkness. God speaks. I'm going to rend the veil to give you access, and we care about our job. Now I'm not saying that's not important.
But there is nothing more real.
There is nothing more important in your life than the greatness of the salvation, not just in the salvation from sins, but the salvation that we have each day in the relationship with the Lord Jesus and the salvation, the hope that we have of being taken to heaven. You know, I was married 15 years ago, and what would you think of me if I went? Heidi's going to shoot me afterwards for all these stories.
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But what would you think of me if I went up and said my vows and I said, you know, I.
We'll love this woman for the rest of my life. And then I walked away and that was it. It was a one time thing. Marriage was one and done. And that is how we often treat salvation. It's we're saved, we're good. But that will not give us the escape from the traditions that function through all Judaism. And so how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Let's turn back and read one more time.
In Hebrews one and verse 3.
His Son, who, being the brightness of His glory in the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down.
On the right hand of the Majesty on High, let's just commend ourselves.
Our loving Father and our God.
We thank thee for the reminder today.
Of the greatness of thy salvation when the sun was hidden.
We think in the small measure that we can of that cup which the Lord Jesus emptied on that cross of Calvary, when He became our life and our salvation, and that veil being rent to give us access. Our Father to Thee. We pray that each one here, if they are not saved, that they would recognize.
The unlimited love of a Heavenly Father. We pray for those of us that are believers and have.
Enjoy this, that it would not just be something that happened once, but our Father that we would recognize the relationship that we've been brought into with the Son of God who gave himself for us. We pray that this wouldn't just be words that we speak at meeting, but it would be evident in our lives each and every day. Until we hear that show and we're called home to be with our Savior for all eternity, we just ask this.
In his alone worthy.
And his precious name, the name of thy Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.