Hebrews 2:1
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.
Passing through Chapter 1 of Hebrews we have learned great doctrines and truths. We have seen the glory and power of Jesus Christ, His righteousness, and His throne, yea, the Creator of all things. Chapter 2 begins with the word ‘therefore,’ we also could say, ‘contemplate’ the things that have gone before. Chapter 2 begins with a reminder and a warning concerning the Word of God. We are to lay hold of what has gone before, and not only Chapter 1 of the Book of Hebrews, but of all the foundation of God that standeth sure. We are to hold the Word of God as a precious gem, and to be able to recite in our hearts, and in our minds chapter and verse. This book of God reveals the tapestry of our life, the times we live in, and the things that come upon us. The Word of God is to be woven into every fiber of our being so that we become epistles of God, known and read of all men. It is not what I am, but what Christ is in me, both in His life and according to the Word of God in me. The psalmist in Psalm 119 is speaking out to God, it is God’s Word that he has hid in his heart that he might not sin against the very Creator of all things. Psalm 119:11 ¶ Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. The psalmist knew through the Spirit of God that his only defense against sin was in the Word of God. Thus, the Spirit of God reveals to us that the Word of God should be part of our being, hid in our very heart; so we can reflect on the Word of God when in an evil world. As the psalmist would look on his own sin, it was personal, and he knew every sin was against God, His Creator. It will not be man judging me, or the psalmist, but God Almighty, and He is no respecter of persons. But thanks be to God for the daysman standing between me and my sin and the wrath of God — His blood is sufficient for me.
In verse 1 of Chapter 2, we have 2 compelling words, ‘earnest’ and ‘heed.’ These 2 words should get our full attention. The Bible is not a casual book, nor a novel to be read and then put aside. It is the book of your life in God, and His Son, Jesus Christ. This is your map of eternity, it amazes me how someone can love someone for one hour a week, and then go about their own way the rest of the week. How can you think of spending eternity with someone when you have no desire to know Him now? This is not salvation, but the deceiving delusion of man that God only requires a moment of your time for eternity. The Bible sets the standard not the doctrines of men. The Bible is God’s Word, and God’s Word warns and instructs that every child of God should enrich their spiritual life in the Word of God in Jesus Christ. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. (Psalm 119:9)
In Psalm 119, the psalmist uses the word ‘heed’ in relationship to holding on to the Word of God. Make it yours, cherish it, let it become part of you, and it will cleanse your life when the heart is full of the light of Christ. As Christ is the light of the world, the Word of God is our light against darkness. It is our light unto our path and a lamp unto our feet, for in it we receive the knowledge of the Holy. The light of the Word of God will shine brighter and brighter, and point us to the light of God, which is Jesus Christ, for in Him is no darkness at all. Both the words ‘earnest’ and ‘heed’ are a warning to us of every hour of our life. Also in Psalm 119 read verses 2, 18, 28, and 105. Each one of these verses is a step in our spiritual journey with Jesus Christ. In fact, all of Psalm 119 magnifies both the written Word of God, and the living Word of God. This should not be a casual reading, but a prayerful reading with the Spirit of God. Let this psalm sink into your soul so that you may be able to stand in this evil day. With this knowledge of the Word of God comes responsibility to God, and not to man —there is quite a difference in this responsibility. Paul was not an apostle of men, but chosen of God and an apostle of God. So we are to walk as the representatives of Jesus Christ, and not the representatives of man’s traditions, forms, habits, doctrines, or ideologies.
We find the word ‘earnest’ in Jude 3, and again we have this driving and weighty word, ‘earnestly’ not casually contending for the faith, but earnestly contending for the faith once delivered by God through His Son, Jesus Christ to the saints. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (Jude 1:3)
The apostle, writing to the Hebrews, reminds them that if they are not seriously and deeply emphatic and ‘earnest,’ if they do not take heed then the truth could slip away and be lost to them. He adds the word ‘time,’ so that we might also consider the value of the truth of God. We should not let anything from the Word of God slip from our grasp. There has been so much deception in the world, and in the church because God’s truth has been continually compromised. The words ‘earnest,’‘heed,’ and ‘slip’ are warnings to us by the Spirit of God. We have the responsibility of the entire, whole Word of God. One doctrine does not make a whole; it is line upon line, and precept upon precept; it is the interlocking of word and verse, chapter and book in the complete canon of Scripture. God through the Spirit will never let the truth of God disappear from the hearts of those who love Jesus Christ. The message of salvation has been so deluded that many in the throngs are under the deception of an earthly salvation with no heavenly link. This is why the masses have no love, nor respect for the Word of God. And yet they dream of a salvation that has no relationship to the Son of God. How can this be? It was faith once delivered to the saints, and that faith is the same faith that redeems a soul today. It is centered in Jesus Christ and the Word of God.
On a worldly standpoint, as the Word of God is refused by the world, and fewer truths are upheld, the world continually slips into deeper darkness. Even though we have great intellectual power according to the minds of men, one has to be blind not to see that knowledge and intelligence is not the salvation of man. Look at the world around you, wickedness and evilness abound. I mention only one specific evil act— how can men gun down hundreds of men, women, and children into mass graves and not recognize that they are the personification of evil — that they are willing slaves of an evil religion. There is no religion so despicable as one that ordains mass murder to advance it’s goals and purposes. The darkness of this world is a heavy weight without the Word of God. According to Jude 3, we are to uphold and we are to testify for the faith once delivered to the saints. We are to testify for Christ that He is the only Savior and the only Judge of this ungodly world. It amazes me how much good the world professes when every good deed is done as a respect of persons and for a desire of gain.
The message of salvation goes out to all, but it is only a very few who hear and come. There are few who love the Lord Jesus with all their hearts, souls and spirits. To love God is to obey God, and to serve Him in an ungodly and evil world. This is no small challenge in our day. For all the deceptive evils of Satan try to distract our attention from the one and only love of our life, the Lord Jesus. How often have we considered the war against evil that we are in? We are instructed to resist the evils of Satan. After all, he is a lion going to and fro through out the whole earth seeking whom he may devour — this is no small war against this foe. He has had many centuries and millenniums to perfect his deceptions. All the darkness of this world is against us, and to fight against this darkness we have the eternal book of God, for His Word abideth forever.
In the day of battle when the sword falls, the battle is lost. God will never let His sword fall to the ground. This sword is the Word of God. The world and the ungodly men in the pulpits have been trying to quench this sword since the days of Abel. For we acknowledge that Abel had faith in God, and faith is not blind, but ever present in the hearts of God’s children; and with faith God gives His Word to feed that faith. (Although Moses penned the first five books of the Bible, we also find his writings by the Spirit of God in the Psalms.) Abel was taught of God with God’s Word directly from God. Abel was not walking blindly through this world, like so many today who profess Christ and know Him not. Abel had saving faith in a Holy and Righteous God. To the unbelieving Jews, the Lord Jesus gave this warning when He rebuked the Pharisees in Matthew 23:22-39.
And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. (Matthew 23:22)
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (Matthew 23:23)
Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. (Matthew 23:24)
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.(Matthew 23:25)
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. (Matthew 23:26)
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. (Matthew 23:27)
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.(Matthew 23:28)
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, (Matthew 23:29)
And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. (Matthew 23:30)
Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. (Matthew 23:31)
Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. (Matthew 23:32)
Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? (Matthew 23:33)
¶ Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: (Matthew 23:34)
That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. (Matthew 23:35)
Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. (Matthew 23:36)
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37)
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. (Matthew 23:38)
For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Matthew 23:38)
These are soul searching words from the Lord Jesus Christ. These were not general phrases from the Son of God. These were sharp pointed words — pointed right at the heart of the individual. Though addressed to the Pharisees, these words were for every individual heart, and yet, not one repented. The die was cast — God gave them up! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Concerning the Church of our day — we could say it is the same spirit of the Pharisees— God will spew this church out of His mouth. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:16) The hearts of the Jews were ruled by man and not by God. It was the Jews religion and not God’s. God’s feasts had become the feasts of the Jews. God had been put aside for the traditions of men. Their house truly had become desolate, and thus, the Lord gave them over in 70 A.D., 40 years after the Lord began His ministry (40 — the number of testing and trial) the Romans destroyed Herod’s temple and the city of Jerusalem. The temple was laid even with the ground, and not one stone was left upon another— total destruction as the Lord prophetically foretold. And the only things that the Jews hold on to today is a wall of stone, with no life and no salvation. And fittingly they have named it the Wailing Wall, for they have been wailing ever since they rejected their King, the Son of God. This curse will only be lifted when they turn to Christ and cry, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. They will receive their King of kings and Lord of lords, and the blessing of the Lord will be upon them. But we live in the Church age, has the rejection or denial of Christ been any less than in the days of the Pharisees? The Church has given up her first love, which is Christ. They would rather have the world and paganism in their midst. How many times have you met people who intertwine pagan rituals with Christianity, the islands are full of this deception. When paganism came into the church then man was put in charge, and God was cast out of the church as the Lord Jesus was cast out of Jerusalem. All true believers were cast out of the meetings, they were told to put up with man’s rule and shut up. Their liberty was to be surrendered to the Nicolaitans, “rule over the people.” Man would become the authority over the Word of God. How many times have you heard from the pulpit these phrases, ‘this is not really what this word means,’ ‘this word is not correct,’ does not the Spirit of God know His own mind? Can God be deceived? Cannot God the great Almighty Creator keep and maintain His words? Cannot God who created the world keep and maintain a book? Is God under a delusion that He is Sovereign? I think not! Man is the deceived one, and it is man who is under a great delusion. When was God’s preeminence denied in the Church? Paul writes to the Galatians, “who has bewitched you?” How soon they had turned from the truth. John, in his epistle wrote . . .
I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. (3 John 1:9)
Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. (3 John 1:10)
The Church’s denial of Christ and His servants already existed in the 1st century of Church history. Both Paul and John recognized this departure from the faith. As the centuries have slipped by man has deliberately and deceitfully mislead the children of God. These deceivers have been deliberately dividing the Church by one faction after another. All denominationalism is the division of the Body of Christ. If this was God’s will, why do they all have different doctrinal statements, and why are they at enmity one against another? True believers find themselves cast out and shunned because they believe in One Body, One Name, and One Love, and One God, Jesus Christ. These deceivers tell of God’s love, yet divide the body of Christ. They build grand sepulchers or buildings to their tribute and to their great accomplishments. They preach of God’s Sovereignty except in the rule of His Church. For God does not know the mind of His own Spirit, or the truth held within the pages of the Word of God. Whose side will you be on? God’s side or the deceivers?
For the deceivers walk by another spirit, by another Jesus, and by another gospel. They are truly the spirit of antichrist. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. (3 John 1:11)
Is it not good to follow Christ and Him alone? Or would you join the Jews at an empty wall with no life and no hope? They worship a wall of stone as the self- glorifying church worships itself. The Lord declared to the end-time church, which is now, Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: (Revelation 3:17) Does not this sound like the proud Jews in the days of Christ or later in world history, when Babylon the great is revealed?
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. (Revelation 17:3)
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: (Revelation 17:4)
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (Revelation 17:5)
Does not the church of this present day reflect the same spirit or abomination? The church says ‘I have need of nothing, and that includes the Lord Jesus.’
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)
We will soon see the unfolding of judgment against the abomination held by the professing church. Their judgment will be sure and swift, as they who have rejected Christ will find themselves in the days of the great tribulation. Take this warning, I would rather stand with Christ alone then to have the accolades of men to deceive me.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (Philippians 2:5)
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:(Philippians 2:6)
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: (Philippians 2:7)
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.(Philippians 2:8)
I have a Savior who humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Where should my heart be planted — at the threshold of an ungodly system, or in the Person of Jesus Christ? Read the words of Isaiah 55:6-9.
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:6-9)
In your hearts love the Lord with the oil of gladness, and cling to Him for your comfort. For He is the God of all comfort. You may be rejected of men, but you are precious in His sight.
For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. (Psalm 32:6)
Amen.
© Copyright 2015, Michael Haigh
Article may be used, but not for gain. Freely ye have received, freely give.
All Scripture references are from the Authorized King James Version. (KJV)