T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 4

The Necessity of Giving Earnest Heed to the Things That Have Been Heard

The first half of this message is a transcript, but unfortunately the recording ends part way through. However, the full message was published as an article in the AWAT magazine in January 1966, so the message has been completed using the article from the magazine.

Lord, we do now adjust ourselves to the deepest truth, that only Thou Thyself canst make us understand Thine own things. It is not possible for the natural man to understand the things of the Spirit of God. Only the Spirit of God can give that understanding. And unless Thou here in this very hour dost do that with every one of us, we have come in vain. Lord, do Thou the speaking, beyond all human instrumentality, may we be given to hear the Lord speaking in our hearts. That will be fruitful. We pray that it may be so in the Name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

Will you turn again to that letter from which we have already read, the letter to the Hebrews in chapter 2: "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard lest haply we drift away from them. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Which having at the first been spoken through the Lord was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness to them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will."

If you'll turn to the end of the letter, to chapter 12 at verse 25: "See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not when they refused Him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from Him that warneth from Heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now He hath promised saying, 'Yet once more will I make to tremble, not the earth only, but also the heavens.' This word 'yet once more' signifying the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. Wherefore receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God, with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire."

Those words, of course, sound very terrible. They're almost like holding a threat over people and you might feel that they are not too encouraging a beginning for a time like this. I have read them with one object and I think they constitute a very good starting point for such a consideration as is before us at this time.

No one will question the solemnity of those words. There is something almost terrible about them. When you hear them, you say, "Well, you cannot, you dare not fail to recognise that we are in the presence of something very serious". There's something very serious on hand when such words have to be spoken. We are not in the presence of some just light, superficial, pleasant matter and interest. We're evidently in the presence of something momentous, something which, if on the one side can be put into such a language of fear; fear! For it says, "let us fear." A fear. A warning. A solemn and terrible warning. The possibility of something awful happening. If, on the one side it's like that, you don't talk like that about anything unless it's something of tremendous value, something of very glorious possibility and consequence. To miss that something is said to be the most terrible thing that could happen. Therefore it must be something tremendously important.

Now, I'm not exaggerating. I'm not making that up, but there you are. I started at the beginning of the letter, "Let us fear lest..." I've gone right over to near the end of the letter, and the same words or similar words, occur again, a summing up. And in between the beginning and the end you just have any number of these earnest entreaties, these solemn warnings, examples taken out of the life of others who did not give heed and go through. And what happened in their case? You have all these exhortations, entreaties, admonitions, warnings, beseechings, and we shall come on to those in particular, probably before we're at the end of these gatherings.

What is it all about? Now therefore, friends, I suggest to you that this letter must be a very vital letter. If that's the nature of it, the realm of it, if that is the portent, it's something tremendous in view for Christians which can be missed. That's what it's all about.

I, this afternoon, will occupy my time mainly in talking about the letter. Later we will get into the letter itself probably, and talk about it.

Now you see, when you have language like that, when someone is speaking in this way and it's put on record and it turns out to be (allow me to put it in this way) not man writing or speaking, but God, you surely must be in the presence of a crisis. It must be a crisis that is on hand. That is, a terminal point on which and at which tremendous issues are at stake, one way or another. When you hear something has got to happen, it's the ultimate that is brought to bear upon this moment, this situation. Now, we know, of course, that this letter itself took its rise from a crisis, but it's impressive to realise that not only was it related to a historic crisis, but the Holy Spirit took hold of that and introduced the ultimate crisis - built upon that the ultimate issue.

Perhaps you need that explained. The historic crisis was this: this letter was written probably about, approximately two years before that full scattering for the whole of this age of the Jewish people; the destruction of Jerusalem, which the Lord Jesus had foretold. The words you noticed in our reading which were in the first place spoken by the Lord Himself, "Give the more earnest heed" and some of the things which were spoken by Him, were related to this crisis. He said, "The day is coming when they will cast up around you their siege. They will leave not one stone upon another." That whole terrible twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew's gospel spoken by the Lord was bearing upon the thing that was now within a year or two of actual fulfillment when the Roman legions besieged Jerusalem, brought it to starvation, destroyed its temple, so that literally, according to a Jewish historian, they did not leave one stone upon another.

It is on record that as they went about their work, they literally left the whole thing to the ground - to the ground. And the temple: finished, all the temple worship finished, the priesthood finished, the sacrifices finished, the people scattered to the ends of the earth, never to be recovered again in the dispensation. It's been like that according to the Lord's word, "your house is left unto you desolate." It's been like that these two thousand years. That's the historic crisis that is here, the shaking of the things of the earth that can be shaken.

Now the Holy Spirit takes hold of the historic and superimposes upon that something bigger: the shaking of the heavens also. The heavenly things! This is, this is Jewish Christianity now, it's Christianity as a whole that will be shaken at the end. This is an end of one phase. Another phase is coming when everything in Christianity will be shaken - shaken to its foundation.

This tremendous two-fold crisis is the occasion of this letter. Why did the Lord cause this person, whoever he was and we won't debate who he was, to write this letter at that time? And this is where it comes to us with just as much force, it ought to come as it came to the Jews at that time, or was intended to do. The time will come - it is fixed in the counsels of God - when everything in this creation and in this universe is going to be subject to a tremendous shaking. It's going to happen! Going to happen.

Peter speaks about it in terms of the atomic age, as you'll know. "Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved..." the elements of fire, and so on. It's coming. Now the issue is this: when that comes, if that comes, what that we have, will abide the shaking? What will go through it all and survive unshaken? Unshaken! What have we got that, let the greatest shaking in this universe come, can never be moved, will never go, that will come out all right, unshaken. A kingdom which cannot be shaken. What have you got like that?

Now, this letter was written to these Hebrew Christians, to try... it was a great effort of the Lord, to get their feet established on ground that could never be shaken. You see, they were wavering. They were wavering. They were already being shaken. They were being moved from their steadfastness. Some of them were thinking of going back to the old associations and the old Jewish system. It was like this. And the Lord inspired this letter with the one object of getting them established, so established, that when this terrific storm broke, and these winds were let loose, they carried away, carried away so many and so much, there would be that which would stand the storm, and abide. And, as I have said, He used the historic as the occasion for bringing in the eternal. He leads onto this for all Christians.

Now, dear friends, there are two things about that that are important for our notice. One is this: that you cannot, you cannot settle that matter when the storm breaks. See? If you have ever been in a storm, a real good storm, you know very well that that's not the time to get things settled. If you haven't got them settled before then, you are just going to be all at sea indeed. Forces will be just too much to cope with, far too much to cope with. You'll just be thrown all over the place. An emergency is not the time to quietly get down to our foundations. We're caught up in things too much. It's like that. If it's not all settled beforehand, if you don't know where you are beforehand, when this thing breaks, you'll not be able to see to it then. That's important to recognise.