Hebrews 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord… I. THE WORD OF GOD EXPRESSLY DECLARES THAT GOD WILL PUNISH SINNERS. II. THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD, HIS REVEALED PERFECTIONS, NO LESS CERTAINLY SECURE THE PUNISHMENT OF THE SINNER HEREAFTER. III. We have another and an independent proof that the impenitent sinner must look for a severe retribution when he comes before the judgment of his Maker, derived from THE PAST JUDGMENTS WHICH HE HAS INFLICTED ON ACCOUNT OF SIN. 1. Often have individuals been made to experience the instant vengeance that God takes upon iniquity. Under the Mosaic law the provisions were exceedingly severe, to mark to that people that God abhors transgression. 2. On many occasions God has manifested His anger against sin, towards multitudes at once. 3. Once agate; contemplate a more awful wreck, and a worse disaster yet. Think of those angelic beings, that once were in the presence of God, loving, holy, happy beyond fear, who seemed in their Maker's favourite have a shield that would secure them to eternity. Those angels transgressed the wilt of God. And "keeping not their first estate" they ,re now visited by no mercy, reserved to an eternity of horror. What God has done, why, sinner I should He not do again? How can you plead an exemption from the curse that has rested upon so many? IV. But there is another fact, still more awful than all — another argument still more potent than these. If every other proof that God will visit iniquity were lost, if His Word were silent, if we otherwise knew not His attributes, if there were no past judgments to point at, still in THE CROSS OF CHRIST YOU would read a manifestation of the wrath of God against iniquity, which must reduce to hopelessness every considerate person still living in sin, or must reduce to silence at the last day every sinner that will cling to delusive hope. For why did Christ die, Because God will manifest how He hates iniquity; because He must — because holiness, justice, truth, goodness, and mercy require that He must — show that He hates sin. (B. W. Noel, M. A.) Parallel Verses 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; |
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