TAKE HEED HOW YOU HEAR
TEXT: Hebrews 2:1-4
Hebrews 2:1-4 KJV 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. [2] For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; [3] How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; [4] God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
I. INTRODUCTION—THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
A. It’s Author
-The Epistle to the Hebrews is one that has an angle to it that most of the other New Testament epistles do not have. It was written by someone who had a great understanding of the Mosaic Law and the practices that surrounded it.
-There are many scholars who have attributed the Hebrew letter to Paul. However there are some matters in this letter that would lead us to believe the he did not write it.
• Nowhere does he name himself in the letter as he did with his other epistles.
• The writing style of the letter is much different from what his other epistles are.
-What we do know is that the readers of the letter did know who was writing it:
• Hebrews 13:18—Pray for us!
• Hebrews 13:22—I have written a letter to you.
• Hebrews 13:24—Salute all them that have rule over you.
-There is another clue that we look to in Hebrews 2:3 that helps us to see another facet of the picture:
Hebrews 2:3 KJV How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
-We can know that the author was not with the Lord during His earthly ministry because the author notes that what had been spoken by the Lord “was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.” Paul counted himself to have been one of those who had both witnessed and heard the words of the Lord (Gal. 1:11-12; 1 Cor. 15:1-3). The man who wrote the Hebrews gained his revelation of Jesus Christ by those who had preached to him.
-That same avenue of work takes place in our times. We ought to be thankful for those preachers and teachers who have been gifted by God to preach with accuracy and precision that helps us to have insight into who Jesus Christ is and what He is calling us to be and do.
-Obviously after we have received the Holy Ghost there are measures of faith and revelation that comes to us directly through the actions of the Word and Spirit as we allow it to work in our lives.
-Some have attributed the writer to be either Apollos, the Alexandrian Jew who was an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures (Acts 18:24), or Barnabas, the man who was instrumental in Paul’s acceptance by the early Church.
-It really does not matter who wrote the epistle but it does matter if you want to be a serious student of the Bible. That is one of the things that you begin to understand that the more deeply you look at the Word, the more you come away from it realizing that you will never master the Scriptures . . . which really is not the goal but rather for the Scriptures to master us.
B. It’s Theme
-The theme of the Hebrew epistle is that Jesus Christ is better than. . . He is better than:
• The prophets—1:1-3
• The angels—1:4-14; 2:5
• Moses—3:1-6
• Joshua—4:6-11
• The Aaronic Priesthood—5:1-10; 7:26-8:2
• The Levitical Priesthood—6:20-7:29
• Abraham—7:1-10
• The Tabernacle and its ministry—8:3-6; 9:1-28
• The Old Covenant—8:7-13
• The Old Testament sacrifices—10:1-14
• The Law that was received on Sinai—12:18-24
-Therefore always keep in mind when you read Hebrews, look for the word “better” and you will see that Jesus is better than anything this world has ever known.
C. Five Warnings In Hebrews
-The Hebrew letter itself is a good example of a New Testament sermon that would have been preached in the early churches. It can be read in about 45-55 minutes and it covers a host of theological doctrines but it also has some elements of Christian living in it.
-The way that takes place is by the five warnings that are placed throughout the letter.
• 2:1-4—The Warning to Pay Attention
• 3:7-4:13—The Warning Against Unbelief
• 6:4-8—The Warning Against Falling Away
• 10:26—31—The Warning Against Deserting Christian Assembly
• 12:25-29—The Warning Against Refusing the Lord
-All of those warnings meant something to those 1st Century Christians and it should mean something to 21st Century saints as well.
II. TAKE HEED AS TO HOW YOU ARE TO HEAR
-The thought for this message came to me several weeks ago as I was sitting in a Wednesday night Bible study listening to Brother Patterson teach. This passage was one of the ones that he ran across while he was teaching.
-I continued to mull it over long after the service had been dismissed that night. Take care as to how you hear.
Hebrews 2:1 JB Phillips We ought, therefore, to pay the greatest attention to the truth that we have heard and not allow ourselves to drift away from it.
Hebrews 2:1 WNT For this reason we ought to pay the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, for fear we should drift away from them.
Hebrews 2:1 YLT Because of this it behoveth us more abundantly to take heed to the things heard, lest we may glide aside,
Hebrews 2:1 Moffatt NT We must therefore pay closer attention to what we have heard, in case we drift away.
Hebrews 2:1 Murdock Therefore we ought to be exceedingly cautious, in regard to what we have heard, lest we fall away.
Hebrews 2:1 GDBY_NT Therefore it behooves us the more earnestly to give heed to the things which we have heard, lest at some time we may leak out.
Hebrews 2:1 Mace Therefore we ought to give the greater attention to the things we have heard, for fear we should abandon the gospel.
Hebrews 2:1 NASB For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.
-The command was that we should take great care and caution as to what we are hearing, how we are hearing, and how we are to retain how we must hear.
-There are some of us sitting here now who have heard thousands of sermons and Bible studies over the years. The great question that must be answered is whether or not those messages have made a difference in our walk with the Lord.
-All of us have had to endure our fair share of “bad” sermons, of which I have been guilty of pouring on some poor souls who are here now. But I think by and large most who have been in the church for any length of time know and understand what a solid biblical message sounds and even “feels” like.
-All of us have heard messages that made their mark on us for the better. I have a list of Top Ten messages that I feel like have made crucial results in the direction of my own life and walk with God. Part of our salvation is our response to preaching!
-There may be some who would feel like a message like this is only self-serving to myself as a preacher, I can certainly tell you that these are some practical things that I have been doing over the years when I am listening to preaching.
Thomas Watson—When we come to the Word preached, we come to a matter of the highest importance; therefore we should stir up ourselves and hear with the greatest devotion.
A. Listen with a Prepared Heart
-Hearing is closely connected with our heart.
Matthew 13:16-18 KJV But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. [17] For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. [18] Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
-What was the parable of the sower? The four types of soil and only one of them was ready to receive the seed. It was the good ground. The Word must find good ground when it starts falling from the pulpits that we allow our ears to hear.
-But Jesus was very clear in the matter that it was the heart that was truly the issue. The reason that some receive the Word is because of the state of their heart. . . the reason others reject it is because of the condition of the heart.
-A prepared heart will respond to the Word when it starts to do its work:
• The personal confrontation with sin that comes from Word-driven preaching.
• The information that we receive simply from the Word itself.
• The conviction the Word is allowed to develop in my life.
• The motivation to pray, to seek, to worship, to sacrifice, to commit to the Word.
• The transformation that takes place in my mind in response to the Word.
-A prepared heart is not there to critique the points, judge the transitions of subjects, point out the verb tenses that are wrong, the parts of speech that are butchered, and whether or not the preacher is an orator. A prepared heart is intent on hearing . . . so that nothing slips away. . . Take heed how you hear!
-The prepared heart is one that confesses all known sin. Confession of sin removes the hindrances and obstacles that have been put in our path. It is my attitude toward sin and low-living that will either give the Word free-course or it will be a like a blocked up creek that is filled with algae, scum, and trash.
David Clarkson—Hearing is the provision made for the soul’s eternal well-being, its everlasting welfare depends on it; if you fail here, your souls perish without remedy. For salvation comes by faith and faith comes by hearing. It is an act of eternal consequence. According to our hearing, so shall the state of our souls be to eternity.
-A preacher is literally the representative of God if he is preaching biblically.
B. Listen With a Prepared Body
-Not only are we to listen with a prepared heart, we are to listen with a prepared body. It is hard to listen to preaching when you have loaded up on forty-seven cups of coffee before you get here. It is hard to listen when you have night-owled the previous evening away. It is hard to listen when a Saturday day/evening has been spent in some carnal manner of entertainment.
-Just before Jesus was betrayed, He was almost pleading with His disciples to stay awake with Him so they could pray with Him. He was headed for the painful beating and miserable hours on the Cross and he needed someone to be with Him in His praying.
-Instead, He found them in a terrible place:
Matthew 26:40-41 KJV And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? [41] Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
-The condition of my body will have much to do with how I hear.
-Here are some practical suggestions to help your body for Sunday worship.
C. Listen With a Praying Spirit
-Preaching is a spiritual event through which the Lord is speaking very clearly to us through His Word. Since that is the case, then prayer is important in getting my heart ready to hear the Word of the Lord.
-That kind of prayer goes in two directions. First, it goes toward the preacher. Pray for the man who is preaching to you. I can speak from personal experience that there have been multiple times that I would go to church (hearing Brother Patterson), to a conference, to a camp meeting, and so forth and there would be a pleading in prayer! “Lord, please speak to me through the Word of the Lord!”
-The psalmist prayed that kind of prayer:
Psalms 119:17-20 KJV GIMEL. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word. [18] Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. [19] I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me. [20] My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
-The Bible itself almost begs saints to pray for those who are preaching to them. Paul implored for the faithful to pray for him in his preaching (Rom. 15:30-32; 1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1; Eph. 6:19; Col. 4:2-4).
Gardiner Spring—If a people are looking for rich sermons from their minister, their prayers must supply him with the needed material; if they seek for faithful sermons, their prayers must urge him, by a full and uncompromising manifestation of the truth, to commend himself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God (2 Cor. 4:2). If God’s people are going to expect powerful and successful sermons, their prayers must make him a blessing to the souls of men. (A Plea to Pray for Pastors, Gardiner Spring, 1991, p. 3)
III. CONCLUSION—DOES IT MATTER HOW I HEAR?
-Some would certainly ask the question: Does it matter how I hear? I would only point to John 6. It is there that we find the recording of the miraculous feeding of the multitude. After the physical needs were met, Jesus turned to the spiritual needs. . . which are far greater.
John 6:35 KJV And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
John 6:41-44 KJV The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. [42] And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? [43] Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. [44] No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
-Jesus would then turn the message to an even “harder” saying when He told them they would have to eat his body and drink his blood. What the emphasis was which Jesus was getting at was that He and His message would have to be entirely integrated into everything about them.
-Then notice what took place. . .
John 6:66-69 KJV From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. [67] Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? [68] Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. [69] And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
-What was the difference in the response of all of these people? It had everything to do with how they heard. When the seed hit the soil of the soul, it could not find a place to grow!
-I have to grow in my walk with the Lord! I must grow in my walk with the Lord! It matters how I hear!
Philip Harrelson
May 23, 2015
