How Shall We Escape?: What Hebrews 12 Demands We Hear Before It Is Too Late
- The Love Church
- 6 days ago
- 8 min read
There are messages a pastor does not particularly want to preach. Not because they are untrue — but precisely because they are. Because they require something of everyone in the room, including the one standing at the pulpit. This is one of those messages. And I believe with everything in me that God prompted it for this specific morning, for this specific congregation, and for every person reading these words right now. So I am asking you to do one thing before we go any further: do not tune this out. Do not assume it is for someone else. Let it in.
That is exactly what Hebrews 12:25 commands: "See to it that you do not refuse to listen to him who is speaking to you now. For if those sons of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we turn our backs on him who warns from heaven?"
The word refuse carries weight. Refusing is not passive indifference — it is an active posture of the heart. And God, in His love for us, keeps speaking, keeps warning, keeps inviting. The question this passage presses directly into our chests is this: are we listening — and are we acting on what we hear?
Why God Keeps Warning Us About Sin
God warns us about sin because He knows something about us that we tend to minimize about ourselves: we are drawn to it. Our flesh, our appetites, our human nature — they are pulled toward precisely what God says to stay away from. Not because God is trying to restrict our joy, but because He knows what sin does to us. He has seen the trajectory. He knows where the road leads.
And so He warns us — through Scripture, through the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of His Word. Because He loves us too much to stay quiet. As long as there is a preacher in a pulpit willing to stand on God's Word, there will be messages about sin. Not to shame anyone, but to draw everyone to the only remedy that exists.
What exactly is the danger we are being warned away from? Hebrews 9:27 is plain: "It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this comes certain judgment." Not a possible judgment. Not a judgment that might happen if circumstances align. Certain judgment. Every human being who has ever lived will one day stand before the God who made them and give an account. That is not my opinion — it is the declared testimony of Scripture.
And sin, at its core, is not just a bad habit or a moral failure. It is a crime against God. It is a transgression of the moral order that our Creator has established. David — the man after God's own heart, the one who wrote so many of the Psalms — committed adultery, orchestrated the death of one of his most loyal soldiers, and yet still cried out in Psalm 51, "Against You, and You alone, have I sinned." He understood that even when sin harms other people, its primary offense is always vertical. It is against God first.
We like to measure our sins against someone else's. At least I have not done what they did. But Romans 3:23 levels the playing field entirely: "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." There is no curve. No partial credit. No category of sins small enough to go unaccounted for before a holy God.
The Only Escape: The Blood and the Gift
Here is where everything turns. Here is where the warning becomes an invitation.
Romans 6:23 begins with the verdict we all deserve: "The wages of sin is death." That is the earned consequence of crimes against God — spiritual death, eternal separation from the One who made us. But the sentence does not end there, and it is that continuation that changes everything. The verse presses on: "But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."
But God. Two of the most powerful words in the Bible. We were heading one direction, and God intervened. Not because we earned it, or merited it, or talked our way into it. But because He is a God of grace — and grace, by definition, is a gift. You cannot earn it. You can only receive it.
This is what Paul proclaimed in Acts 13:38-39 in the synagogue at Antioch: "Through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in him is made right in God's sight — something the law of Moses could never do." The law could diagnose the problem. It could identify every transgression and render a perfect verdict of guilt. But it had no power to remove the guilt. Only the blood of Jesus — the sinless Lamb of God, taking our sin into His own body on the cross — can do that.
When the judgment day comes, and it is coming for every one of us, the only plea that will hold is the blood of Jesus. Not your good deeds. Not your charitable giving. Not your decades of church attendance or your religious pedigree. None of that can atone for even one sin against a holy God. But the blood — the blood of the One who had no sin of His own, who voluntarily carried ours — that plea will hold. That answer will stand. That is the only escape from the penalty our sin has earned.
A Moment to Reflect
Pause here and sit with a question: If you stood before God today and He asked what you have to say for yourself, what would your answer be? Not what you hope you would say — what would you actually say? The only answer that will satisfy is the blood of Jesus. Have you placed your trust in that? If there is any uncertainty in your heart right now, do not read past this moment without settling it. Keep reading — the invitation is coming.
Two Kinds of Response: Acts 13 and the Pattern That Repeats
The Acts 13 account is one of the most honest portraits of human nature in all of Scripture. Paul and Barnabas arrive in the synagogue at Antioch and preach the resurrection of Jesus Christ with clarity and conviction. The response is remarkable — the people beg them to come back the following week. And on that next Sabbath, nearly the entire city turns out to hear them.
But then something predictable happens. When some saw the crowds, they were jealous. They began to slander Paul and argue against everything he said. And Paul's response is staggering in its directness: "Since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles." The same gospel that brought joy to those who received it stirred rage in those who rejected it.
That pattern has not changed. There is a spiritual battle unfolding in our world today that is as old as the gospel itself. The forces that mocked the apostles, stirred up mobs against truth-tellers, and ultimately crucified the Son of God are still active. Acts 13:52 gives the believer's response to all of it: "The believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit." Not despair. Not panic. Joy and the Holy Spirit — because our confidence is not in the stability of the culture around us but in the unchanging God above us.
But here is where we must stop pointing outward and ask the harder question inward: How have I responded to the invitation of God? Because our resistance can be far quieter than a mob. It can look like reluctance. Like putting off the decision. Like staying comfortable in religious activity while never surrendering the heart. Like knowing all the right answers without ever making the right choice.
Who Owns the Dog? The Question of Where Your Heart Goes
I want to leave you with a picture that I believe the Holy Spirit dropped in my heart. Picture two people, both claiming ownership of the same dog. One stands on each side. Both begin calling — here, boy, come on. One holds out treats, shiny toys, things that catch the dog's eye. The other simply stands there, trusting in the relationship — I raised this dog from a pup. He knows me. He is mine.
But here is the truth: whichever person that dog runs to is the de facto owner in that moment. The legal claim means nothing if the heart has gone the other direction.
We can be like that dog. The enemy holds out the glittering things of this world — the trinkets, the temporary pleasures, the biscuits of 2026 — and says, come this way, I will take care of you. And on the other side stands the One who has watched over you from your very first breath. Who has fed you, kept you, preserved you through every season you have lived. Who loved you enough to send His Son to die for you.
Joshua 24:15 speaks the only response worth making: "As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord." That is a declaration. That is a choosing. And every single one of us makes that choice — not just once, but again and again, in the small moments of every ordinary day.
2 Corinthians 5:20 tells us something beautiful about this moment right now: "We are Christ's ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, come back to God." That is what is happening in these words. God is making an appeal — to you, through this message, in this moment. He is the owner calling across the field. He is not holding out trinkets. He is holding out the nail-scarred hands of a Savior who has never stopped calling your name.
Your Answer Is Decided Now, Not Then
Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that after death comes certain judgment — and after death, the opportunity to choose is gone. Hell, Scripture tells us, is full of people who believed eventually. They just believed too late. The decision you make in this life is the decision that stands in the next. There are no second chances after the door closes. The time to settle your answer is not someday. It is now.
The only escape from sin and its penalty is the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is alive. He is risen. He is interceding for you before the Father right now as your advocate, your High Priest, the one who bore every sin you have ever committed and ever will commit in His own body on the cross. The gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. That gift is available to you today. It cannot be earned. It can only be received.
I heard, I acted, I confessed, I repented, I believed, I received forgiveness and eternal life. That is the answer I want to give on that day. And I want it to be yours too.
A Prayer and a Next Step
If God has been speaking to your heart through this message today — whether you have never given your life to Jesus or you have drifted and need to come back — do not let this moment pass.
Pray this now, in your own words and from your own heart:
"Heavenly Father, I come to You right now. I know that I am a sinner. I know that my sins are crimes against You, and that I deserve the judgment that comes with them. But I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for every sin I have committed. I believe You raised Him from the dead. I ask You to forgive me. I receive Your forgiveness — not because I earned it, but because Jesus paid for it. Come into my life, Lord. Fill me with Your Spirit. Give me a new start, beginning right now. Write my name in the Lamb's Book of Life. I choose You. In Jesus' name, Amen."
If this message reached you today, I would love to hear from you — leave a comment below and share where God met you in these words. Pass this post to someone who needs to hear that there is an escape, that there is a Savior, and that today is still the day of salvation. And if you are looking for a community of believers to walk this road with you, come and join us for a service. The door is open. The God who has been faithful all your life is still calling.
Come back to God.
Preached on April 19, 2026 | Horseheads, New York
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