One of my favorite preachers to listen to is Alistair Begg. God has richly gifted him for expository preaching, and his love for Christ comes through so eloquently that time and again I am encouraged to chew on the passages he highlights and study more.
I’ve been listening for the last several days to Pastor Begg preach from the book of Hebrews. It’s really caused me to desire to be reading that book along with my daily Bible reading, for it is so full of riches. What he’s been saying has so gripped my heart that today I went back and listened online to the first two sermons from this series, which I had missed, in which he talks about heeding the warnings in scripture. He used Hebrews 2:1-4 which says, “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?”
Then, after talking about heeding this warning not to drift away and to remember the things we’ve heard, he went back to Hebrews 1:1-3 to remind us what it is we’ve heard: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”
I won’t spell out all the notes I took today, but please go to Truth For Life and listen to these sermons if you get the chance. It is food for the soul! I am going to whet the appetite a bit and show some quotes that had me saying, “Amen!” out loud today while feeding Boo her lunch. She looked at me funny, but, I had to go back and listen again just so I could write some of these down.
While talking about how all things are created by Jesus and for Him, Pastor Begg mentioned that commentaries from the late 19th and early 20th centuries tried to explain away miracles like the feeding of the 5,000. Calling this preposterous nonsense, he said, “If He is the creative agent of the whole universe, what’s brunch for 5,000 out of five loaves and two fish?” Yes!
Pastor Begg also addressed scientists who may be listening and told them that they must bring their minds under the truth of God’s Word, that this must be the starting point. He said, “All of your scientific experimentation must be posited on these truths. These truths do not fight for acceptance on the basis of your scientific abilities. And at the end of the day, when the brightest scientific brains have the codes cracked for them, they will be on their knees before Christ and they will declare Him Lord of the whole universe that He has made.” YES! That one had me shouting today.
Listen to the rest of this series for some very sober warnings and some gloriously high teachings of Christ’s majesty. Pastor Begg talked of his passion to preach the Bible well and encourage us to pay most careful attention to the truths of the Word of God so that we do not drift away, for he has known people who have drifted as they grew tired of hearing the Gospel preached and began to become jaded thinking they were “beyond all that.” May I never, never outlive my love for my blessed Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
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