Pathway to Victory

Guest (Male): Hey podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today’s podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a non-profit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God’s word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.

To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here’s today’s podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and I’m glad to study God’s word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today’s edition of Pathway to Victory, every day in the world, tens of thousands of people die. And they die without having taken advantage of the greatest offer, the greatest deal in the world: the forgiveness of their sins that God offers and the assurance of heaven.

Some reject it, but most simply neglect it. Why would anybody neglect an offer like that?

David J. Mullins: Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, every day companies bombard us with offers they say we just can’t pass up, like limited-time deals or once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. But what about the greatest offer ever made: the offer of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ?

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explores why so many people reject God’s incredible gift. But first, let’s take a moment to hear some important ministry updates.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Thanks, David. And welcome again to Pathway to Victory. This weekend, Christian churches around the world will celebrate Palm Sunday. It triggers the beginning of Holy Week leading up to Resurrection Sunday. And in keeping with this spiritual holiday, I’ve set aside time to feature a special sequence of messages focused on our Savior, Jesus Christ.

With this in mind, I boldly invite you into this mission mandated by Jesus: to make disciples in all the world. Your generous gift, whether big or small, will be channeled into reaching men and women with the good news about Jesus through radio, television, printed resources, the internet, and through every platform available today.

Just after my message, we’ll describe a thank-you gift we’ve set aside for you. It’s my bestselling book on spiritual warfare called The Divine Defense: Six Simple Strategies for Winning Your Biggest Battles. Make no mistake, the devil is waging war against followers of Christ like you and me. My book will clearly describe how to win. I’ll share more details later. But right now, let’s turn our attention to the subject at hand. I titled today’s message: An Offer You Can Refuse.

A few years ago, I used a sermon illustration that I could never offer again today because of security reasons. You’ll understand. But some of you may remember. I pulled out a ten-dollar bill and I said, "Whoever comes up on this platform first will receive this ten dollars." Can’t do that today, but I offered it and, to my surprise, nobody came.

And so we kept waiting and still, no one came. And everybody walked away that day empty-handed. And I speculated why it was that nobody took me up on my offer. Perhaps they thought there was some trick—that they were going to get tricked—and it wasn’t a legitimate offer.

Other people thought, "I’d like the ten dollars, but I’m not going to humiliate myself and make people think I need ten dollars that bad." And then there were some who thought, quite frankly, "I’ve got plenty of ten-dollar bills in the bank or in the stock market; I really don’t need it."

The point is: some rejected, some neglected, but everybody walked away with empty hands, without any lasting consequence. Did you know that every day here in America, 8,000 people die? Every day in the world, tens of thousands of people die. And they die without having taken advantage of the greatest offer, the greatest deal in the world: the forgiveness of their sins that God offers and the assurance of heaven.

Why do people not take up God on His offer? Some reject it, but most simply neglect it. Why would anybody neglect an offer like that? Well, the author of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament answers that question in the passage we’re going to look at today. If you have your Bibles, turn to Hebrews, chapter two, beginning with verse one, as we look at an offer from God you can refuse. Hebrews, chapter two, beginning with verse one.

Now, the context of this letter is important to understanding it. People say Hebrews is so hard to understand. It’s not when you understand the context. The writer was writing to Jewish Christians who had left Judaism and embraced the message of Christianity, but they were having second thoughts about it.

They began suffering ridicule and pressure from their Jewish families to renounce Christianity and go back to Judaism. They were facing external threats from the Roman government. And so, to keep them from making such a tragic mistake, the writer of Hebrews shows them how Christianity is superior to Judaism and every other religion.

Jesus Christ is superior. He’s superior to the prophets in verses one to three of Hebrews, chapter two. He’s greater than the prophets. Remember Isaiah, Ezekiel, or earlier Moses? They were all great prophets, but Jesus is superior to them. And He is superior to the angels, as wonderful as they are.

Jesus created the angels. In fact, in verse 14 of chapter one, the writer says, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who inherit salvation?" Why would you worship the angels? They’re your servants. God created them. I like to call angels God’s AAA service: always available to assist whenever we need them. God created them to serve us. We don’t need to worship them.

Why would you worship those? They are for the sake of those of us who inherit salvation. And as the writer wrote the word "salvation," he thought, "You know, I need to stop here. And I need to say a word of warning about salvation." Now, you’ve noticed I do that in my preaching. Sometimes we’ll be going through a passage of Scripture and I’ll say, "Let me stop right here and say a word to those of you who are dads listening, or moms."

Or let me say a word to those of you who may not yet be Christians. You’re close, but you haven’t made that final act of faith. I do that all the time. That’s what the writer is doing here. He’s written down the word "salvation" and he said, "I better give a warning about salvation to my audience because, although many of them are Christians, some are not Christians." And here is the word of warning in chapter two, verse one.

"For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that they do not drift away from it." Now, there are two key words in this passage that we need to pay attention to. One is the word that is translated "pay closer attention." We need to pay closer attention to the message of salvation. That word in Greek is the word "prosecho". Prosecho.

It literally means—it’s a nautical term—that literally means to tie up a ship to its mooring. As far as this salvation goes, we need to pay closer attention to it. We need to tie up. And why? A second reason is: lest we drift away. That’s a different Greek word: "pararheo". Pararheo: to drift away. It too is a nautical term. It refers to a ship that misses the harbor due to the inattention of the sailors.

It’s not that the sailors don’t want to go into the harbor; they’re looking forward to getting home. But they have their attention diverted because of other things they get interested in and they miss the harbor that leads to home. That’s the way it is with many Christians. They drift past the message of salvation, not because they hate the message of salvation, they just don’t think they have time for it.

In Matthew 7:13, Jesus said clearly, the majority of people in the world are on the broad road that leads to hell. Did you know Jesus taught the majority of humanity is going to end up in hell? Why is that? Is it because they wake up one day and say, "You know, I think I would really like to go to hell when I die. I think that idea of being tortured by God day and night forever and ever, that sounds pretty good to me. I choose hell"?

No sane person does that. There are a few who do that, who angrily reject God, but most people don’t reject; they simply neglect the gospel. C.S. Lewis said it well when he wrote, "The road to hell is a gradual one: the gentle slope, the soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."

Jesus illustrated that truth in a parable He told in Matthew 22. If you can hold your place in your Bibles and turn back to Matthew 22 for a moment, listen to this parable. Verse two: "The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come."

This king decided he was going to have a big party, a big banquet. Guess how many RSVPs he receives? None. So he sends another group out. Verse four: "Send the slaves out again and tell those who have been invited, 'Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.'"

But they paid no attention and they went their way: one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized the slaves and mistreated them and killed them. That’s incomprehensible. Why would they kill somebody for inviting them to a feast? It makes no sense. No more sense than it makes for people to angrily reject the gospel.

Have you ever wondered why some people get so worked up and angry when they hear the news of Jesus Christ coming to die for their sins? They get angry about it. It makes no sense. But most people, again, don’t angrily reject the gospel; they just neglect it. That’s what these people in Jesus’ story did.

They said, "I’ve got other things to do. I’ve got a home life to deal with. I’ve got a business to deal with. I’ll be like the Roman Governor Felix: I’ll get around to it at a more convenient time." No, the writer of Hebrews says we need to tie up to the message of salvation today lest we drift past it and never return.

Why is it important for tying up to the gospel? Why the reason for this warning? First of all, because of the superiority of God’s messenger, Jesus Christ. Go back to Hebrews 2, verse one. For this reason... For what reason? He’s saying just for the reason we just discussed: that Jesus is superior to the angels, to the prophets, to every form of Judaism. He alone is sufficient.

He is God’s final and complete revelation. For this reason, we need to tie up to the gospel right now. He is God’s complete revelation. The second reason he gives, in addition to the superiority of God’s messenger, is the severity of God’s judgment. That’s why we better pay attention to the gospel. Look at verse two of Hebrews 2: "For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty..."

Now hold on, what is he talking about? Remember, he said the angels are created beings. But the angels, the real angels in the Bible, were not these cute, cuddly creatures that we see on television or in the movies, like Clarence the angel from It’s a Wonderful Life. You know, we think of angels as nice, warm, fuzzy beings. They’re not like that.

In fact, did you know that the angels were responsible for delivering the Mosaic Law to Moses on Mount Sinai? Psalm 68:17, Acts 7:53. They delivered the law. And what was in the law? All kind of regulations and punishments for those who didn’t meet those regulations. Remember, the Mosaic Law had over 600 parts to it, 600 laws, and they governed everything you could do: what you could eat, what you could drink, what you could wear, what you could do or not do on the Sabbath.

And what happened if people didn’t live up to the law? Contrary to popular thinking, God did not pat them on the head and said, "There, there, nobody’s perfect. Try again next time." No, "every transgression," verse two says, "was met with a penalty." And the penalties for not meeting God’s standards were severe penalties. Let me give you three illustrations of that.

In Leviticus 10, we find the story of Nadab and Abihu. They were two priests who one day were walking along singing "God is so good, God is so good." And they said, "You know, we serve such a great God. Out of a heart of gratitude, why don’t we just offer Him a sacrifice right now? It’s not written down in the law that we should offer this sacrifice, but we’re just doing it because we feel led to."

You know what they got for their trouble? God struck them down dead. Why? Why would He strike people dead for offering a sacrifice? Because it was an unauthorized sacrifice. You had to keep every part of the law. Or even more disturbing: 1 Chronicles 13, the story of Uzzah. Uzzah was walking alongside a cart that was carrying the ark of the covenant, that box that contained the law of God.

This wasn’t the Steven Spielberg version; it was the real one: the ark of the covenant. And the oxcart hit a pothole in the road and that ark started to slip out of the cart. And Uzzah reached his hand out to touch it, to steady it, to preserve it. And God struck him dead. It wasn’t he was trying to do the wrong thing; he was trying to do the right thing, but he did it the wrong way. God said, "Don’t touch this ark."

One more story: Numbers 15, verses 30 to 36, tells the story of a man who was simply gathering wood, except it was on the Sabbath day. God struck him dead for that. He may have been wanting to do something good like warm up the food for his family or offer a sacrifice to God, but he broke God’s rule and God killed him. Now, that’s the kind of God that we all have to deal with.

So the question is: how do you plan to escape if you neglect God’s salvation? Let’s think about America for a moment. We’re guilty of a lot more severe sins than gathering sticks on the Sabbath. We have a nation that is filled with immorality, with violence, with blasphemy. Do we think we’re going to survive God’s judgment? How do we as a nation think we’re going to escape the judgment of God?

But let’s make it more personal. How do you think you’re going to escape? How do I think I’m going to escape God’s judgment, His penalty for sin? Just listen to some of these verses. Habakkuk 1, verse 13: "Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor." Or Deuteronomy 27:26: "Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of the law by doing them." Or James 2:10: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one place is guilty of all."

God demands absolute perfection. And none of us, starting with me, can begin to meet that expectation. So how do we plan to escape if we neglect so great a salvation? And that leads to the third reason to tie up to that message of salvation—not tomorrow, not someday, but today—and that is the sufficiency of God’s salvation.

Go back to Hebrews 2, verses three and four: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed for those of us who have heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will."

Pastor, what is so great about this salvation God offers? Why does the writer describe this salvation as so great a salvation? Three reasons. First of all, it is a salvation without cost. It costs you and me absolutely nothing. In Hebrews 1:14, remember he talked about those who inherit salvation.

Romans 4 explains God will never let you work for your salvation. He’ll never let you play the least part you can imagine in your salvation. It’s all of grace. If salvation is something you and I work for, then it’s something God owes us. And God refuses to owe us anything. That’s why we receive salvation as a gift from God, apart from works, lest any one of us should boast.

The final invitation of the Bible is found in Revelation 22:17: "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let him who wants to take the water of life do so without cost." It’s a great salvation because it’s without cost. Second, it’s without condition.

There are no conditions. There are no loopholes. There are no exceptions. God grants us salvation forever. Romans 11:29 says, "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." Here’s the promise we have from Jesus Himself, who said in John 10:28, "I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish; no man shall snatch out of my hand those whom the Father has given me."

It is a salvation without cost, without condition, and most importantly, it is a salvation without constraint. There are no limits to what God will forgive us of. I love Colossians 2:13. Paul says, "When you were dead in your transgressions and uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Christ, having forgiven us of..." how many of our transgressions? "All our transgressions."

That little word "all" is big enough to include everything you’ve ever done. Every sin you’ve ever committed. Not just the little ones like picking up sticks on the Sabbath, but those gigantic, humongous sins that you pray to God nobody ever finds out about. God forgives you of all of your sins. That is why it is so great a salvation.

In his book, In the Grip of Grace, Max Lucado says, "You know what bothers me most about convicted murderer Jeffrey Dahmer? The man responsible for murdering, dismembering, cannibalizing dozens of men. The thing that bugs me most about Jeffrey Dahmer is not his heinous acts, but his salvation."

While in prison, before Dahmer was murdered by an inmate, Jeffrey Dahmer trusted in Christ as his Savior and immediately had his sins forgiven. And right now, Jeffrey Dahmer is in the same heaven you and I will occupy one day. That is a tribute, not to the greatness of Jeffrey Dahmer, but to the goodness of a God who offers you so much grace that it covers even the most vile of all of your sins.

Let me ask you the all-important question: what’s your game plan for escaping God’s judgment? You better have one because it’s coming. If you reject God’s offer of Jesus Christ, how are you going to escape God’s judgment of your life? How do you plan to be right with God if you neglect a great salvation? A salvation that is without cost, without condition, without constraint. How will you escape if you neglect such a great salvation? The answer is: you won’t. You won’t.

For many listening today, this is a wake-up call. You’ve come to realize that you desperately need a game plan for escaping God’s judgment. And if you’re ready to learn more, I plead with you to go online to ptv.org. On our website, you’ll find a wealth of resources where you can watch, listen, or read. It’s my privilege to guide you in your search for purpose and meaning in your life, found only through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now, if you’re already a Christian believer, I’m boldly calling upon you to join us in this effort to tell the world about Jesus. By giving a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you’re empowering us to share the good news of Jesus Christ here in North America and around the world.

Did you know that Pathway to Victory is translated into multiple languages? Our latest addition is a version of Pathway to Victory in the Hindi language. Hindi is one of the largest spoken languages in the world. And now, the Bible teaching you hear here every day on Pathway to Victory penetrates India. Would you be willing to join us in this effort by providing your financial support?

As you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory today, I’m going to say thanks by providing my bestselling book on spiritual warfare called The Divine Defense. Drawing from real-life stories and deep biblical truth, this book equips you to stand firm and fight back effectively. I look forward to hearing from you today. Here’s David to tell you more.

David J. Mullins: You’re invited to request a copy of Dr. Jeffress’ bestselling book, The Divine Defense, when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. As an added bonus, we’ll also send you the highly requested Equipped for Battle brochure. Just call 866-999-2965 or visit online at ptv.org.

And when your gift is 100 dollars or more, we’ll also send you, in addition to the book, this month’s new teaching series on audio and video disc along with the companion study guide. Plus, you’ll receive a special children’s book titled Suit Up for Kids. This colorful book helps the children in your life learn to fight temptation and trust in God’s protection.

To request these resources, simply call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org. And for a quick, easy way to support Pathway to Victory, text PTV to 78800. You could write to us—here’s that address: PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that’s PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.

I’m David J. Mullins wishing you a blessed Palm Sunday weekend. Then join us next week for a special week of Easter messages right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Join us on the Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska. I can hardly wait to show you Alaska. I’ve been there before and every time I witness those massive glaciers and towering mountains, I’m reminded of how incredibly creative our God is. The world-class service means you can truly relax and focus on what matters. So reserve your cabin today: call 888-280-6747 or visit ptv.org.

Guest (Male): You made it to the end of today’s podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we’re so glad you’re here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner.

Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His word. To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org/donate or you can follow the link in our show notes. We hope you’ve been blessed by today’s podcast from Pathway to Victory. Oh, and one last thing before we go: have you reserved your spot yet for the 2026 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska?

You’ve been hearing me and Dr. Jeffress mention it, so what are you waiting for? Just picture yourself on the deck of Holland America’s elegant Koningsdam and stepping out on deck to witness nature’s grandeur. It’s beautiful. These moments in God’s creation will deepen your faith in powerful ways; it really will.

Experience five-star dining, luxurious staterooms, and visiting iconic ports like Juneau, Ketchikan, and Skagway. We’re also bringing along our own Christian entertainment; you’ll love it. Seats are filling up, so book your spot today at ptv.org.