The Danger of Neglect
By
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
SCRIPTURE: - Hebrews 2:1-4 “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 word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will”.
PRAYER: -
OPENING: - I came across this little saying in my studies on this week and I just had to use it. I do not know who originally said it, but it says “Neglect is my sin. It brings me nothing but sorrow. I know that I should stop it - In fact, I will… tomorrow! There are many people who find themselves in situations that could have been avoided if only the had not neglected to do something about it before it was too late.
It is not hard to understand that simply doing nothing is so dangerous in the natural physical realm as well as in the spiritual realm. Relationships fall apart because we do nothing to keep it together. We fail to realize that what we did to get them in the first place we must do to keep them. Unfortunately, many people don’t work at their relationship, and it suffers from neglect. A beautiful lawn or garden is destroyed by neglect weeds grow and choke out any beauty and life that was once possible. Your house will crumble around you if you neglect to take care of it. Neglect your health and sickness will overtake you and ultimately death will be knocking at your door. Proverbs 24:33-34 says, “A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest; So, shall your poverty come like a prowler, And your need like an armed man”. This is dealing with neglect and the result it produces.
There is a story of a minister who started his sermon by leaning over the pulpit, and saying with great fervency and compassion, “Friends, I have a question to ask. I cannot answer it. You cannot answer it. If an angel from heaven were here, he could not answer it. If a devil from hell were here, he could not answer it”. The question is this, How, shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Well let me answer that question right here and now! The answer is, there is no way we will escape if we neglect such a great salvation.
Someone may ask the question escape what? Escape the judgment and wrath of God!
The Danger of Neglect.
Neglect according to Strong’s Greek 272 is from ameleo and means “a” = without + melo = to care for, to show concern, forethought or interest - it literally means without care and thus showing no concern. To be careless. To be unconcerned about or to care nothing for something or someone. It is to recognize but to ignore, to know but to fail to do, to admit but not to administer.
So great Salvation.
UNDERSTAND: - Salvation is a gift from God. Salvation cannot be earned but is received by faith. Romans 10:9-10 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. The result of salvation is eternal life! John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Romans 6:23 adds, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
UNDERSTAND: - Salvation is the provision, the escape route that God has made for everybody to escape His judgment and wrath. He is Holy and He must judge sin in His appointed time. In judging sin He will punish sin, this is His wrath on sin and everything unholy. Salvation is the escape from His judgment and wrath. Salvation means more than we are saved, we shall go to heaven when we die. It means more than being religious, going to church, singing and praising God, reading the Bible or saying prayers. A wonderful picture of salvation is given in Luke 15:3-7 the parable of the lost sheep. The sheep had gone astray from the shepherd and the rest of the herd, scared, unhappy, wandering, lost and in danger alone in the wilderness; the shepherd left the other 99 sheep and searched for the lost sheep, when he found it, he picked up the lost sheep, placed it on his shoulder and bought it back into the safety of the herd. This is how salvation is, outside of Christ we are lost, lonely, hurt, depressed, confused, messed up, scared, lonely in the wilderness about ready to die. Salvation provides complete
restoration, pulling us out of the muck and mire of sin and bringing us back into a proper relationship with God. Salvation is the provision that God has made for bringing us back into fellowship with Himself and into the safety of the fold. To neglect so great salvation is to be without hope and suffer the judgment and wrath of God.
In our scripture in Hebrews it says, “so great salvation”.
It is so great because of the great love that provided it John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life”.
It is so great because of the great price paid for it. Salvation cost God the best that He had. 1 John 4:9 says, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him”.
I like how one preacher said it: - Creation cost God a word – “And God said” Genesis 1; but Salvation cost Him “the Word” John 1:1-4 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men”.
It is so great because of all the great blessings included in it as Ephesians 3:20 “exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think”.
Hebrews 2:3 “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”.
When we read this scripture, we may want to believe that this scripture is directed to the sinner, the atheist that refuses to believe in God, to the one living a perverse lifestyle, or living in total unholiness. However, this scripture is directed to those that are called the Children of God, that go to church, that profess to be saved who are not rejecting salvation but are neglecting it.
There are three words that will basically describe the attitude of every person who hears the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everyone falls under one of these.
ACCEPTING. This means to hear, to believe, to receive, to trust and be saved. Acceptance is active; it is often the result of a process of contending with God, wrestling it out in prayer, fasting, repenting, and finally surrendering to His will and plan. Acceptance recognizes that the God who said Isaiah 46:9-11 “I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it”. Is God I you accept His Will and His Word and live accordingly.
It is hearing and believing John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. It is doing John 1:12 “But as many as received (accept) him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name”. That is the gift of God unto Salvation. Romans 10:9-10 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast”. Acceptance chooses to believe that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28.
Accepting that is the ideal place to be and the place most so-called Christians believe they live daily.
REJECTING. This refers to a conscious and deliberate refusal to receive what is being offered to us. This is the atheist that believes there is no God. This is the person that believes they are not that bad and don’t believe God will judge them and cast them in hell for all eternity. Acts 28:24 says, “And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not”. People reject God’s word because they don’t want God interfering with their so-called fun and good times. They don’t believe they will be judged by God and will suffer the consequences for all eternity if they fail to accept Jesus Christ. Many people think that they’re basically good and that God will overlook their faults and give them a free pass because in their mind they are not that bad or as bad as some others or because they have done good things in their life like feed the hungry and give to the poor. They fail to understand Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”. So, they don’t repent of their sin and believe in Jesus Christ to save them from God’s judgment.
Many people reject the Holy Ghost’s attempts to draw them to faith in Christ. Acts 7:51 says “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!”. A person afraid of the dark we can understand but the real tragedy of life is when someone is afraid of the light”. Rejecting God’s salvation is the real tragedy of life because they are afraid of the light. John 1:4-5 “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not”.
Sadly, many are found in this category because as 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”. So, they reject God’s word and His Salvation.
Then the 3rd word is Neglecting. This word is so destructive because many people are guilty of it and don’t even realize it.
NEGLECTING. Remember it means without care and thus showing no concern. To be careless. To be unconcerned about or to care nothing for something or someone. It is to recognize but to ignore, to know but to fail to do, to admit but not to administer. Neglect is very dangerous because people will fall into this category and not really realize it because of comfortability. When you become comfortable you lower your guard and act without thinking or fail to act properly. Remember when Uzza touched the Ark of the covenant and God killed him, some may want to say God was unjust or cruel but understand Uzza was comfortable and neglected God’s word and the result was ultimately death. Uzza was Abinadab’s son, the Ark of the Covenant had been in his house for 20 years. Uzza was used to being around the Ark of the Covenant, he was comfortable around the Ark. His comfortability with the Ark caused him to neglect God’s word and ultimately cost him his life.
There are people who go to church regularly, who have been in the way for a long time, they know how to church, they never miss a Bible class, but they have become so comfortable with church that they neglect certain things and find they are drifting farther and farther away from God. One song writer said it like this “O Zion what’s the matter now, you don’t pray like you used to pray, you don’t sing like you used to sing, you don’t love like you used to love O Zion what’s the matter now”. Because of comfortability there is neglect and neglect breeds drifting.
Matthew 22:5 says, “But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise”. These are people that were invited to the marriage feast but neglected to take the opportunity to receive the blessings that was bestowed upon them.
This is the place many people are right now. I believe I am in the house when I say a lot of Christendom is here in the place of neglect because we often will neglect standing on the unadulterated word of God trying to appease the world. There is more concern for trying to make people feel comfortable and that their sin really isn’t that bad that we will neglect a standard of Holiness so wrong isn’t called wrong. You can’t condone sin by neglecting the Word of God and expect to conquer sin. You can’t neglect the Word of God and win souls to Christ. You can’t neglect the Word of God and think you are on your way to heaven and are so glad because neglect causes things to be destroyed. Neglect your marriage and it will fall apart.
One of the greatest questions in the Bible is Acts 2:37 “Men and brethren, what shall we do” to be saved Peter answered in 38 “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”. But what must you do to be lost – NOTHING. Don’t do anything and you will be lost. Neglect is doing NOTHING!
Let me give some dangers of neglecting so great Salvation.
In the beginning I said: - Relationships fall apart because we do nothing to keep it together. We fail to realize that what we did to get them in the first place we must do to keep them. Unfortunately, many people don’t work at their relationship, and it suffers from neglect. I don’t ever want to neglect my relationship with my wife so I do things to show her I love her, and I will not neglect her. We travel on cruises because that’s what we like to do but just to keep the relationship exciting sometimes I will walk pass her, look at her, tell Alexa to play some slow romantic song, grab her by the hand and dance with her in the middle of the living room floor. Now some super sanctified people may not believe in that but I said me and my wife because marriage is like a dance you learn a few basic rhythms and some fancy steps, just enough to say that you can dance together and to remain on the dancefloor for the evening or in the case of marriage, so you can navigate life together. After a short, while you think you’ve got your moves down, even become better at these moves, but then you notice that there are so many more moves that you need to do to keep you on that dance floor or to propel you across the floor in delight rather than drifting apart from neglect.
Neglect breeds drifting and drifting leads to destruction. When we neglect the Word of God, when we neglect so great Salvation we begin drifting and fall victim to deceitful ear ticking preachers and teachers that will tell you all manner of stuff. We will fall to every wind and doctrine believing untruths and perverted versions of so-called gospel. I have seen and heard somethings on Facebook by so-called preachers that sounded good and if I had neglected prayer, neglected reading the Word of God would have believed some of that stuff and been messed up. Several months ago I preached about foolishness in the pulpit and how this so-called preacher was condemning the church for not buying him a certain type of watch. The sad part about it was the people in the church that were saying amen and agreeing with that foolishness. If they had not neglected studying, praying, and fasting they would realize that what he was saying is not of God, they would have rejected that false prophet and not been made a mockery of. That is the danger of neglect falling victim to every wind and doctrine of men.
When we neglect the Word of God, when we neglect prayer, when we neglect so great a salvation how can we ever fulfill the Great Commission. Matthew 28:19-20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen”. The devil knows the Word better than you or I do and if you neglect the Word of God and try to go up against the devil he will do to you like he did to the seven sons of Sceva Acts 19:15-16 says, “And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded”. When you neglect the Word of God you become ineffective just a tinkling brass or sounding cymbal, you’ll become lukewarm and the Word of God says in Revelation 3:15-16 says, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth”.
WATCH THIS: - Neglecting the so great salvation or the Word of God can cause you to lose your soul. 2 Timothy 3:15 says, “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus”. Since scripture makes thee wise unto salvation then to neglect it causes you to become unwise, drifting toward destruction and lose of your soul.
There is a story of a man who was in a little rowboat on the Niagara River. It was a beautiful warm sunny day and this man was just relaxing and enjoying himself on the river. He decided to get comfortable and lay down and take a nap. He neglected to anchor himself and while he slept the rowboat just drifted along on the water. When he finally woke up he was about to go over the falls, he was now caught in the swift current of the water unable to get out of the pull of the falls. He ended up going over the falls in the rowboat and dying. If he had not neglected to anchor his boat before he got comfortable, he would not had drifted and ultimately dying. There is danger in neglecting so great a salvation. This so great salvation, the Word of God, prayer, fasting these are the anchors for our souls.
Like the song by Douglas Miller says, “Though the storms keep on raging in my life. And sometimes it's hard to tell the night from day. Still that hope that lies within is reassured. As I keep my eyes upon the distant shore I know He'll lead me safely to That blessed place He has prepared. But if the storms don't cease And if the winds keep on blowing in my life My soul has been anchored in the Lord”
If you neglect so great a salvation your soul is not anchored in the Lord.
CLOSING: - I have said how my wife and I love to cruise. One of the things I like to do on the cruise is watch has the ship pulls into to dock at the different ports. The ship weighs thousands of tons they are massive, they hold from 2000 to 8000 people on them, but when they pull into port two necessary things take place. One they drop an anchor that drops to the bottom of the ocean and hooks on to rocks, this anchor comes from inside the ship and is hooked to some massive machine that is welded and bolt to the ship. Then they take these massive ropes that are connected to another inner part of the ship, connected to these massive ropes is a smaller rope connected to a weighted ball, they take the small rope with the ball and throw it to someone at the dock who pulls the massive rope up and ties them to these gigantic structures called a mooring to make sure the ship is secure and not able to drift. Once the rope is around the moorings and the anchor is dropped, they have the machine inside the ship pull some of the massive rope back up into the ship. This causes the ship to be secure not only from under the water but next to the dock as well. Failure to do this would be destructive.
Well, there are two things that if we do not neglect so great a salvation that will keep us from drifting away and being destroyed. Hebrews 6:17-19 says, “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil”.
When we do not neglect so great a salvation, we can rest assured on the promises of God because He cannot lie therefore 2 Corinthians 1:20 says “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us”. Having hope on things eternal not being tossed and driven by the angry seas of this life. We are safe and secure because we have not neglected so great salvation.
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
