Listening to God
Hebrews 12:18-29
March 27, 2016
This morning we come to the final invitation of the book of Hebrews.
Chapter 13 is actually the final chapter,
But it serves more as an exhortation to those who believe.
The end of chapter 12 is really the final invitation
To those among the Hebrews who are vascillating.
If you haven’t been with us throughout this study of Hebrews,
LET ME GIVE YOU THE BASICS IN A NUTSHELL.
Here it is:
GOD IS SPEAKING
He is offering salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 1:1-4 “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.”
Jesus is the final message of God.
Everything God has to say to you is found in Him.
And according to the book of Hebrews,
Jesus is the greatest message God has ever spoken.
This book spends an enormous amount of time revealing that:
• Jesus is greater than the prophets
• Jesus is greater than the angels
• Jesus is greater than Moses
• Jesus is greater than Joshua
• Jesus is greater than Aaron
• Jesus is greater than the sacrifices
• Jesus is greater than every other thing
And the overwhelming concern of the writer of the book of Hebrews
Is that these Hebrews WOULD FAIL TO LISTEN
To this message of Jesus which God was now speaking.
Hebrews 3:7-11 “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.'”
That was just one of many warnings in this book.
GOD IS SPEAKING! DO NOT IGNORE HIM!
It is reminiscent of many of the illustrations Jesus gave.
Matthew 22:1-7 “Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may 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. “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘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 went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. “But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.”
These people also failed to listen and the end result was judgment.
The writer is concerned that these Hebrews
Are going to reject God’s message of Jesus.
WHY WOULD THEY?
Because they closer they’ve come to following Jesus, the harder it has been for them in the world.
I feel certain many of you in here have felt this tension.
There is a certain level of commitment to Jesus that this world will gladly let you have.
• It is acceptable to go to church periodically
• It is acceptable to post Jesus stuff on Facebook
• It is acceptable to give credit and glory to God when you win
• It is even acceptable to give glory to God when things are hard
WHAT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO THE WORLD
Is when you make the insinuation that Jesus requires
A total break from their entire manner of life.
Your buddies will let you believe in Jesus, so long as believing in Jesus doesn’t affect your speech, your habbits, your conduct, your morality, or your ethics.
But the first time you start to pull away from
The sinful habits of your friends because of Jesus,
That’s when they’ll let you know you’ve crossed the line.
That is convicting to their life.
Pulling away from that form of life
Sends the message that their lifestyle is unpleasing to God
And the world will not tolerate that message.
That is what these Hebrews have done and that is why they are in trouble.
They have left Judaism for Jesus, and the Jews have not handled it well.
Hebrews 10:32-34 “But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one.”
• They’ve been maligned
• They’ve been imprisoned
• They’ve had their property and possessions confiscated
And now, because it has been so hard,
Many of these Hebrews are contemplating
Turning a deaf ear to God’s message of Jesus
And returning to their former manner of life in Judaism.
The overwhelming cry of the writer of Hebrews is “DON’T!”
• He wants them to listen to God’s message
• He wants them to believe God’s message
• He wants them to respond to God’s message
• He wants them to cling to God’s message
That has been the purpose of the first 12 chapters of this great book.
Jesus is greater than anything Judaism has to offer,
So please, please, please don’t forsake Him to return to Judaism.
PICK JESUS!
And that cry comes to its culmination here at the end of chapter 12.
• He is going to ask them to respond to God’s invitation.
• He is going to ask them not to refuse God’s message.
• And he is going to use an ancient illustration in order to drive this point home.
In effect he will tell them:
You have come to a moment of decision, just like your forefathers did.
The only difference is:
Your opportunity is better than theirs was.
Your consequences are more severe than theirs was.
So let’s listen to this writer’s illustration and then
Hear his final plea to those who weren’t quite sure what to do with Jesus.
#1 THE PAST
Hebrews 12:18-21
He begins by saying, “For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched”
You’ll see what he means here in a moment.
But basically he is saying that your opportunity is different from that of your forefathers.
They came to a literal, physical mountain that could be touched.
That is not what has happened to you.
God has brought you to a spiritual mountain which cannot be touched.
But first, the writer reminds of what it was like
When those Jewish ancestors came to that physical mountain.
They came “to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.” And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.”
I hope you picked up on the scene the writer was referring to.
• Israel had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years.
• God sent Moses to deliver with many signs and wonders.
• After Israel left Egypt they eventually made their way to Mt. Sinai
• It was a Sinai where God entered into a covenant with Israel.
The covenant there was what is commonly referred to as
“The Old Covenant” or “Mosaic Covenant” or “The Covenant of the Law”
• Moses went up on the mountain where God gave him the Ten Commandments.
• Moses was to write down the entire Law of God, present it to the people,
• The people were to determine whether or not they would agree to those terms.
The terms were basically like this.
There are some things you should do.
There are some things you shall not do.
Failure to perfectly obey all of these commands brings the penalty of death.
To make sure they understood the seriousness of the covenant,
God Himself descended upon Mt. Sinai in terrifying fashion
To deliver the terms.
TURN TO: EXODUS 19
(Read 1-9)
• So Moses went upon the mountain, and God offered the covenant to Moses.
• Moses went and told all the elders what God’s terms were
• The people all said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do!”
• Moses took their answer back to God.
• And God said “Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe in you forever.”
Moses is to instruct the people to consecrate themselves for two days,
And on the third day God will come and speak.
God gave some additional instructions:
(Read 12-13)
So obviously this is a serious event.
And then in verse 16 God showed up!
(Read 16-25)
Now if you read chapter 20 you’ll see that God delivered
What you know as The Ten Commandments.
And God’s message was so intense and terrifying
That the people responded like this:
(Read 20:18-21)
It was such a terrifying picture of wrath and judgment that later, when the children of Israel sinned, Moses was literally terrified for their life.
Deuteronomy 9:18-19 “I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger. “For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, but the LORD listened to me that time also.”
AND HERE IS THE POINT TO ALL OF THAT.
• When the children of Israel came out of Egypt they were brought to Sinai where God spoke to them.
• He spoke the Law, He spoke condemnation, He spoke judgment.
• And He warned of the dangers of breaking their agreement.
• Moses then continually warned Israel of the dangers and judgment that awaited for failing to listen to God.
But sadly, it ended time after time in judgment and condemnation.
• That very generation that heard God speak those words all died in the wilderness because they wouldn’t enter the Promised Land.
• All throughout the book of Judges God raised up foreign nations to afflict Israel because of their failure to obey Him.
• Ultimately God used Assyria and then Babylon to utterly destroy and deport Israel out of their land all together.
That old covenant, agreed upon at Sinai,
Promised judgment and it delivered.
That is the point, that is the past.
#2 THE PRESENT
Hebrews 12:22-24
You now see that the writer of Hebrews is saying that
HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF.
No, “you have not come to a mountain that can be touched” (that is, Sinai)
(22) “But you have come to Mount Zion…”
• “Zion” was the name of the mountain where David first set the Ark of God.
• Solomon built the temple on Mt. Moriah and when the Ark was moved there,
• “Zion” became the name of the entire area.
It has thus been equated with the presence of God.
And here the writer uses it to describe
“the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”
So you get the first distinction.
• Sinai was a physical and earthly mountain.
• Zion is a spiritual and heavenly one.
Let’s look at the other distinctions
THIS MOUNTAIN IS HEAVENLY (as opposed to earthly)
“the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem”
We are not talking about things as temporal as earthly provision or protection,
We are talking about eternal things and spiritual things.
THIS MOUNTAIN IS WHERE THE TRUE ASSEMBLY GATHERS
“and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven”
That is to say that the true people of God dwell on this mountain.
The writer says it is not those who are Sinai who are the true congregation,
It is those who are at Zion.
• That is where the angelic choir gathers to worship
• That is where the real “general assembly” meets.
• That is where “the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven” gather.
Incidentally, Jesus is “the firstborn”
Colossians 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”
Romans 8:29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;”
1 Corinthians 15:20-21 “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.”
What we are talking about here is where the real church meets.
Where the real congregation of God gathers.
They no longer gather around Sinai
(that is in Judaism under the old covenant).
The true congregation of God is the church
Who is already “enrolled in heaven”
THIS MOUNTAIN IS WHERE GOD ACTUALLY DWELLS (not symbolically)
“and to God, the Judge of all”
THIS MOUNTAIN IS WHERE THE SAINTS OF OLD LIVE
“and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect”
These “spirits” are the saints of old like Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and David, and Daniel and so on.
They do not dwell at Sinai, they dwell in Zion.
They did not come to God through works of the Law,
They came to God through faith.
THIS MOUNTAIN IS WHERE THE TRUE HIGH PRIEST DWELLS
“and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant”
We studied this extensively earlier in the book,
How Jesus is the great and final High Priest.
• The One who actually entered the presence of God.
• The One who actually atoned for the sin of His people.
• The One who finished His work and now sits at the right hand of God.
• The One who daily intercedes on our behalf.
• The One who brought a New Covenant, no longer dependent on human effort, but a covenant accomplished by the grace of God.
THIS MOUNTAIN IS WHERE TRUE ATONEMENT OCCURS
“and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.”
You may remember that when Abel was murdered by his brother that God said that Abel’s blood cried out to Him from the ground.
Abel’s blood got God’s attention.
This blood “speaks better than” his.
It is the blood of Christ which brings perfect and total forgiveness of sin.
• It is not temporary
• It is not partial
• It is not merely symbolic
What Christ did on the cross in shedding His blood
Brought perfect atonement and forgiveness.
That old covenant saw goat after goat and bull after bull be slaughtered,
And it never produced lasting forgiveness.
BUT JESUS DID
Hebrews 10:11-14 “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
This Mt. Zion brings with it a much greater benefit than Sinai ever did.
Sinai said, keep these commands and you can stay in the land.
Zion said, I will make you holy and you can dwell with Me.
If you want to SUM UP the difference, it is this:
Whereas Sinai could be touched, it couldn’t be approached.
Zion can’t be touched, but it can be approached.
Hebrews 10:19-22 “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
• Because Jesus came to this earth and lived a sinless life, perfectly
pleasing to the Father, and then gave His life to pay the ransom for
sinners.
• Those who come to Jesus and yielded their lives to Him, now have
access to God through His sacrifice.
We can approach God.
The covenant at Sinai said God is totally off limits. (we remember the veil)
The covenant at Zion said “draw near”
In short: THIS IS A GOOD OFFER GOD IS NOW MAKING!
• He’s offering you to draw near to Him
• To be part of the real assembly
• To have genuine forgiveness and redemption
It was better in every way.
AND HERE IS WHAT THE WRITER IS SAYING
• Your forefathers left their lives of slavery and stood before God at Mt. Sinai.
• There God spoke to them and they had a decision to make.
• They had to choose to either listen to God or refuse Him.
Refusing Him brought swift and terrible punishment,
As evidenced by the horrible scene taking place on that mountain.
WELL NOW, YOU ARE IN THEIR SHOES.
You also have been called out of your life of slavery to sin
You also are standing before God’s mountain, and God is speaking.
His message isn’t Law, it is Jesus.
Hebrews 1:1-2 “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”
John 1:14-18 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'” For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
Jesus is the final message and total expectation of God.
Man has sinned and offended God in every possible way.
You have sinned and offended God in every possible way.
But God made provision for that sin through Jesus Christ.
He came to pay the penalty for our sin.
Isaiah 53:4-6 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”
Jesus bore our sins on the cross and paid the debt we could not pay.
We gather on Easter Sunday to celebrate the resurrection.
The reason is because the resurrection proved that
Jesus actually was sinless and therefore His sacrifice really did work.
Romans 4:25 “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”
That is to say, He died because we were sinners.
He was raised to prove we were now justified.
He didn’t save us by stepping out of the tomb,
He saved us by dying on the cross.
The empty tomb simply verified that the cross worked.
This is what Jesus did.
And God’s full message is simple.
TRUST CHRIST
John 5:19-27 “Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.”
God’s intention for your life is that
• You turn from your sin,
• See that Jesus is the only means of forgiveness before God,
• And submit your life totally to Jesus Christ.
That is God’s message.
You (just like them) are now standing before God’s mountain
Listening to God’s terms and God’s requirements.
You have a decision to make.
The Past, The Present
#3 THE PROMISE
Hebrews 12:25-27
Do you pick up on the intense warning given here?
“See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking.”
That is God
It is His Holy Spirit who knocks on the door of your heart and says
“Leave your sin! Submit to Jesus!”
“See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking”
WHY?
“For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.”
Moses warned the people on earth,
And they did not escape when they refused to listen.
But it’s not Moses who is speaking now, it is God.
And if you can’t escape when Moses speaks,
You sure can’t escape when God does.
What is His warning?
(26) “And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.”
What is God’s warning?
Judgment is coming.
2 Peter 3:10-13 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”
Revelation 20:11-13 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.”
Sinai was just a mini picture
Of what He is going to do on a global scale one day.
One day God will come and judge this entire world.
I saw a post on Facebook this week that said,
“Jesus didn’t stay dead, and He won’t stay gone.”
Judgment is coming, and God has warned.
And it is a judgment far greater than anything they saw at Sinai.
(27) “This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.”
God is going to shake this world until the only thing left
Is that which is perfectly righteous and acceptable.
It reminds of Jesus story about the man who built on the rock verses the man who built on the sand.
• The storm is coming, and there is only one thing that is going to survive that
storm, it is the rock, which is Jesus Christ.
• If you aren’t attached to Him, you will not survive the coming storm.
DO YOU SEE THE CHOICE TO BE MADE?
At Sinai He offered obedience or judgment.
At Zion He offers grace or judgment.
Failure to accept His offer is a foolish decision.
The Past, The Present, The Promise
#4 THE POINT
Hebrews 12:28-29
“Since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken”
That is to say, that since Jesus offers us
A means of surviving the coming judgment.
“let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God and acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.”
I’m sure you’ve probably heard it before that
All you have to do is “RECEIVE” Christ.
They make it sound like there is no cost involved.
• Just “receive”…
• Receive forgiveness…
• Receive heaven…
• Receive eternal life…
And to an extent that is true, after all in Jesus we are freely given things
Which we do not deserve and could never earn.
But “receiving” is NOT all that is required.
Here we are told that when given this offer of eternal life
• We should be grateful
• And then we should “offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.”
There is an offering that God expects from you.
What is this offering?
“service with reverence and awe.”
Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
We are called to present our lives, our bodies, our soles, our futures, our plans, our resources, our time, our everything to God.
God gives Christ to us.
We give ourselves to God through Christ.
And why should we?
“for our God is a consuming fire”
That is to say, because our God judges those who don’t.
“fire” is symbol of judgment.
Matthew 3:11-12 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Hebrews 10:26-27 “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.”
Our God judges those who refuse His offer.
Look at Sinai if you don’t believe me.
SO THAT’S WHERE WE ARE.
The writer of Hebrews has spent 12 chapters outlining why Jesus is the greatest offer God ever made.
Forgiveness, security, eternal life, hope…Jesus is the greatest.
But you must present yourself to Him
And leave the former manner of life behind.
Might this be costly?
Yes, in particular, your former crowd might not be too happy about it.
But this is the only way you can escape the coming judgment.
Jesus said:
Matthew 10:28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
The fact is that
• Jesus came, Jesus died, and Jesus rose.
• His salvation is real and perfect.
• God has brought you here this morning to make sure you heard that.
So, you are now standing before that mountain,
And you now have to choose what to do.
“See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking”
John 3:35-36 “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
