Living in an Unstable World for an Unshakable Kingdom

Hebrews 12:18-29 and the Contrast Between Sinai and Zion

Well our text for this morning's message is found in the book of Hebrews chapter 12 and Verses 18 to the end of the chapter in verse 29. So Hebrews 12 18 to 29. When you have that either by following along in your smartphone or in your Bible in front of you.

Please stand for the reading of God's Word. Hebrews 12 beginning at verse 18. For you have not come to what may be touched a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a Tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned. Indeed so terrifying was the sight that Moses said I tremble with fear. But you have not come to Mount Zion into the city of the Living God excuse me but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to God the judge of all and the spirits of the righteous made perfect and to Jesus the meteor mediator of a new covenant and Into the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth. Much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth.

But now he has promised yet once more. I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase yet once more Indicates the removal of things that are shaken. That is things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and Thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. Hey, God bless the reading of his word.

Partnership in the Gospel and the Supremacy of Christ

Please be seated. Our preacher this morning is Royce Ruiz who many of you have had the opportunity to meet. If you have not then please Take that opportunity after the service. He is here with his wife Deanna and His children Jake and Adeline, so please take opportunity to meet all them.

Royce and Deanna were raised in Hollister, California, and I assume that's where you met and married. How long have you married. You didn't tell me that oh. Come on quick now right now. Deanna how long have you been married.

14 years. Married 14 years with the two children. Royce is in his fifth year of pastoring at Hillview Baptist Church in Union City, California. Currently is leading that church into a merger with Redeemer Church there in Fremont, California as well.

And when you get a chance to meet him also Congratulate him. I understand that yesterday. He graduated from Gateway Seminary. So praise God for that. Before you come up, I will pray for the preaching and then You will come and bring us the word that God has given you for us our Heavenly Father.

We do now come To the preaching into the hearing of your word and pray pray father. You would bless preacher and hearer alike that you would give our friend our brother Royce your servant Power and unction and confidence from above to declare your word to us and that our hearts Lord are Ready ground for that word to be implanted it'll grow and flourish.

Take root in us and we will be changed once again By the hearing of your word and the power of your spirit to bring that word to bear upon us. So bless us now father as we come to this segment of our worship to the preaching the hearing of your word.

I pray your pleasure upon it in Christ's name. Amen, brother. Please come. Well, thank you and.

Good morning, and it is good to Be here with you this morning. Excited to be able to to bring the word here and Excited to see more of God's people than just those who we see every week. I think Partnership in the gospel and partnership with churches is is Not just a nice thing to have but but truthfully to take the call of Scripture seriously I think it's something that even if you were here in the Sunday school time you see that this idea of partnership in the gospel is actually core in Fulfilling our mission as as being the church and so Excited to be able to be with you today.

We are as you already know, we read the scriptures in Hebrews 12 encourage you to turn there if you can and Before we get into the text today I want to give a really quick overview of where Hebrews as a book as a letter has been.

I Usually preach through books of the Bible. So I'm used to people having all the background and and here we are just in one text. And I want to I want to give us a quick summary. So Hebrews letter. We don't know the author.

There's there's theories, but we just don't know but we know it was written to a primarily Hebrew or Jewish audience based on the knowledge that it seems expected that the recipients would have and Truthfully the whole book for the most part keeps on playing on an idea that that God has been revealed and if you look in the Old Testament and you see how God was revealed in the Old Testament.

He was revealed very well very clearly. But Christ is so much fuller and so much clearer of a revelation of God. Then was made in the Old Testament that that it almost pales in comparison because as the the author of Hebrews puts it he is the Jesus is the exact imprint of God or in other words.

Jesus is God the Son put in flesh and Given to to us and given for us so that we might Know God in the fullest way possible that we might be reconciled with God whom we were previously alienated from Because of sin and so where we are specifically in the book of Hebrews is a section that starts in Hebrews chapter 11 Which is the the well-known and famous faith chapter that holds up these people who from a Jewish perspective a Jewish Christian perspective would have been held up as heroes of the faith.

There is kind of like these halls of of heroes and they are people who perhaps The temptation would have been to say hey these people Abraham Moses these kind of these kind of of people in In in the past they they arrived they figured it out.

They got all they checked all the boxes. They marked all the things they needed to mark. They completed holiness and and and they got there on their own. But the truth is as the author of Hebrews lays out they did it.

They all came by faith and then at the beginning Hebrews 12 the chapter that we're in it points the church to Jesus who it calls the Founder and perfecter of our faith. He is the one who Through what he has done has Brought us into full communion with God into full relationship with God and into communion by extension with one another Through the blood of Christ and in the beginning part of this chapter He encourages them to basically shed their sin that is Functioning as a weight as they run this endurance race that we call the Christian life and and encourages them.

You're carrying this baggage don't carry it with you shed that follow Jesus and. So all of that leads us into Where we are today and our our text for this morning. When I read this text this morning and I kind of studied through it.

It reminded me of a time and I don't remember exactly where we were and I thought about asking my wife. But I don't think she would remember because I don't know that it that it really mattered but we were somewhere in the Sierras hiking up and My four-year-old was younger at the time and I was trying to get her to see how beautiful it was.

Because we were like on a cliff and it was magnificent. You could see God's creation. It was beautiful and I'm saying look look at how how beautiful it is and. And she could only look at what was right in front of her.

She couldn't even grasp that there was a bigger picture out there that there was something more than what she saw and what she saw Was beautiful she saw she saw God's creation right before her eyes. But she was missing so much.

There there there are these pictures that we see that show us Something that show it revealed to us Something about God and our passage today in verses 18 through 21 Recount a picture that was made of God in the Old Testament and then in verses 22 through 24 tell of a far superior picture of God that is given in Christ and then in verses 25 through 29 it goes in to tell us as Believers as followers of God the appropriate response to this revelation that's been made of God, so Let's take a minute and I know we are.

I know we already prayed. I'm gonna just pray briefly again because I like I like to pray when I preach. And ask God's blessing on this time once again, Lord God. We thank you this morning for bringing us here and bringing us to this text.

I thank you for the opportunity to proclaim your word to your people this morning. I pray that you would strengthen me for this task. Help me to speak your word and what is in your word keep me from speaking any kind of error father.

Help me to preach and proclaim truth use this in the lives of your people to transform Us to be more like Christ Lord. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. So we're gonna look and we're gonna start in Actually looking at these first verses verses 18 through 21.

That point us to a picture of the people of Israel Approaching and Seeing God revealed at Mount Sinai. So it says for you have verse 18 for you have not come to what may be touched. So Pay attention to that phrase you have not come to what may be touched.

So he's about to tell them what they what has how God has not been revealed to them. Instead God had been revealed to their ancestors in this way to what may be touched a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest.

This is pointing back and I'm gonna actually read this and you can you can turn if you want to. Exodus 6 chapter 19 and starting in verse 10 God is speaking to Moses he says go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and Be ready for the third day for on the third day The Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all people and you shall set limits for the people all around.

Saying take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot whether beast or man.

He shall not live when the trumpet sounds a long blast. They shall come up to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people and they washed their garments.

And he said to the people be ready for the third day. Do not go near a woman on the morning of the third day. There were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud Trumpet blast so that all the people in the count in the camp trembled.

Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

So this is what is being referred to and even though the author of Hebrews doesn't even mention Sinai it would Sinai it would be immediately Apparent what he's talking about as he goes on in verse 19 of Hebrews 12 and says in the sound of the trumpet the voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them for they could not endure the order that was given for even.

For if even a beast touches the mountain it shall be stoned indeed. So terrifying was the sight that Moses said and this was Moses their hero in the faith the unshakable Fearless leader of the people.

Moses said I tremble with fear. You see in this time God was revealed to the people. What was he? What did he say in Exodus? He said it said that Moses took the people to meet God but the truth is They didn't encounter God Directly.

All right, they did not encounter God Directly, but instead they saw smoke and fire and lightning they saw the mountain shake and They saw their fearless leader Moses Go up into this Storm into this Violent manifestation of power of God.

And what the author of Hebrews is trying to get the readers to understand is that the revelation of God at Sinai proof at Sinai Proved that God is a consuming fire. That's verse 29 that God is a consuming fire and to be feared so much so that that Moses Was fearful he he was trembling it says imagine For a moment what this would have been like to witness this to see God revealed in this way.

You might say, you know, if I saw a sign like this if God could show me this I Wouldn't be fearful. I would do anything for God if I could have this kind of revelation given to me. Oh Wow, I what I could do but the truth is you have so much more.

Later on in Exodus in verse chapter 33 verse 20, it says. But he said you cannot see my face. For man shall not see me and live. It's God saying you nobody can see me can't see my face. The most you could Possibly see is a shadow or a flash of light.

Some kind of a shielded or veiled picture, but just let's see how the author of Hebrews explains this in our next section verses 22 through 24 starts off with but you have come. So remember verse 18 it said for you have not come.

To where to Sinai you have not come to that mountain. You have come instead to another mountain. Do you see what mountain? Instead you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn Who are enrolled in heaven and the God and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous?

Made perfect. And to Jesus The mediator of a new Covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word Than the blood of Abel. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying you Have not come to Mount Sinai.

Where there's this smoke and power and and and a miraculous amazing Magnificent manifestation of the power of God a revealing to some extent of who he is and what he is. You have so much more. Specifically you have Christ it paints this picture of Coming into the actual city of God with Innumerable angels singing praise and the gathered Saints and.

And obviously there are some future elements to this being fulfilled. But it doesn't say that you're going to come to this mountain. It says you have come. If you're a follower of Christ, this is where you stand before God.

You just don't see it. You don't realize it you think you know if I had if I had them if I had Mount Sinai if I had that Experience that that would give me what I needed to to take those steps of faith that I need.

You don't need that. Because you have all you need in Christ in particular. I think what's key here and I'll admit there's a couple ways to take verse 24. But I think that the way that the translators chose to translate it.

I think it's best it says that Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant mediator is the one who is the guarantor the one who who it falls on him to fulfill and to Guarantee the promise that is made that new covenant a better covenant than one the one that was given through Moses instead this is a covenant that that is fulfilled in Christ that is fully paid for that is completely guaranteed and Specifically it is done by the sprinkled blood the the shed blood of Christ and notice that it says it speaks a better word than and that the Original doesn't say blood of Abel.

It actually just says a better word than Abel. Fitting in the text. I think so they insert the blood so that we could understand what's being referred to here and what is. As I think it's best to understand it.

Specifically what what is the blood of Abel? I mean Abel was held up as one of the examples of faith in in Hebrews 11. But I think what it is referring to is the other time in Scripture that the blood of Abel is mentioned.

Which is Genesis 4 10 which says and the Lord said what have you done? Speaking to Cain. What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is Crying to me from the ground. So Abel's blood the the in in verse 24 of our passage Abel's blood speaks a word.

The word that it speaks is that you and you and me that we are guilty. You might not have killed Abel. You might not have killed anyone. But you are guilty we're all guilty and that speaks a word to God.

The the word that it speaks is you can't be in my presence we can't have relationship. There is this blood between you and me and as long as it is crying out I cannot know you and you cannot know me. But the word that Jesus blood speaks is a better word.

It's a more powerful word and it's the word that eradicates the other word it is what enables Reconciliation and relationship with God and so the blood of Christ is that better word? Because Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant and so What I want you to see here is that the revelation of Jesus is Far superior to that which occurred at Sinai.

You don't need a Sinai experience. You don't and You might think yeah, that would be cool. And I mean it would be neat. I would I would if I could go see it and you know If God would said you want to be transported over there and just see it.

Yeah, I would want to see it. I think that would be really neat. You have so much more. You have so much more. The truth is what did we what did we quote earlier when we quoted from Exodus 33? We said that you cannot see my face and live we Know God the Son Who rather than not being able to look at we look to for life we look on him and Through him and through what he has done.

We now have Relationship with God we have Reconciliation we have freedom from the blood that is crying out from the grave that we are guilty. Because the punishment That was due us was poured out on Christ in our place.

The Warning Not to Refuse the One Speaking from Heaven

Let's look at our last section verses 25 through 29 starts off in verse 25. See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. So this is giving gonna give a warning. Okay, it's gonna give a warning that basically encourages People who are reading this letter there was written to an audience and primarily Jewish Christian audience and It's gonna give a warning.

Don't refuse him who's speaking. Who's speaking? Well, God is speaking. God is being revealed there. There's this true given. There was a revelation given at Sinai. There's a revelation given in Christ.

There is a message given here. He says don't refuse him who is speaking for if they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth. So this is referring back to Sinai if they didn't escape.

Those who did not heed the warning those who said wow, that mountains really great-looking. I want to go up there. I don't know who would have gone up there. I would have been pretty scared but You know, okay, so just as they did not escape much less will we escape if We reject him who warns from heaven so so basically there there is a here a a manifest a a Scope given of the revelation of God in these two instances.

One is very earth bound one is Universal one is heavenly and It's saying heed the warning. Yet once more I will shake not only the earth But also the heaven so remember he shook that mountain there was this there was this power but there is something coming and this is not a You know message of on how it's all gonna work out.

All it's saying is that there's this time coming where there is going to be more Shaking of the earth, but it's he says yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens so rather than just being this mountain.

It's the whole earth. It's the the sky and space and the universe and the heavens. It's the whole thing the whole of creation will shake. This phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken.

That is the things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. So there's coming a day When all of these things that cannot be that can be shaken will be removed. Everything's stained.

With that blood of Abel that's calling out everything cursed with sin done away and The only thing remaining is that which cannot be shaken. The implication is that as believers as followers of Jesus We're part of that that cannot be shaken.

But the truth is we know, you know, I know that we are shaken right we live life and life is pretty lousy. Sometimes it's hard. It's difficult and We get shaken we get discouraged we get down. We get frustrated well part of the good news.

Is that that part of you that can be shaken? One day will be no more and what remains the part of you that cannot be shaken that will be you so let's look at these last two verses verse 28 through 29 because these give kind of an Application of everything that the author has said and this is really so obviously there's another chapter in Hebrews.

But but this is kind of to me the climax of this book. Okay, and so I'm excited to to be able to bring this to you verse 28. It says therefore so in response of all of that because of everything I just said What do we do?

This is let us be grateful. So we respond with gratefulness. Why what do we what are we grateful for? Well, we're grateful for Receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. It can't be shaken and let us So we respond first with gratefulness Giving thanks and then here is the ultimate response to all of that and Thus, let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is A consuming fire.

Okay, did you catch the connection that that he's making and we'll come back to this to the worship idea and just saying because that's Gonna be there are kind of our big our big thrust at the end. But he just made this whole case that that that that Jesus is a better revelation of God than the consuming fire on Mount Sinai but What the people saw they saw the smoke they saw everything around the fire they might have seen some glow from the fire but What what he's saying is that who the the God we have revealed to us in Christ is The consuming fire is the very essence of God he is God the Son and Therefore He is the God who Moses said I Tremble with fear over our triune.

God is that God? Father son and Holy Spirit and so Let us offer to that God acceptable worship with reverence and awe so kind of the Final point that I have but we're gonna have some more stuff after that, but the final point that I have is that the appropriate response to receiving an unshakable kingdom is Acceptable worship the appropriate response to receiving an unshakable kingdom is acceptable worship.

So obviously we talked about you know, life life is difficult. We face these hardships yet. Yet We here are Promised that we are part of this unshakable kingdom this kingdom that will not fail. We're essentially in this we are promised victory and so We are to worship and it says acceptable worship with reverence and awe so I want you to realize something and And Depending on the last time you had teaching on this or what teaching you've had on this so some of what I'm gonna say in a minute might be controversial to some of you and I hope it's not but I I'm Very convinced in this understanding of this they obviously the the Hebrew Christian audience of this book would have known the story of What happens?

Okay, and and you if you're if you are if you've been a Christian for a while and you've heard a lot of teaching you Probably know what happens next also. And so I'm gonna turn to Exodus chapter 32. Exodus chapter 32 and so this is what they would have known.

This is what would have come to mind when it was when they were thinking about this acceptable worship. Okay, because because what did the people do well, let's read verse starting in verse. In verse 1 Basically says when the people saw that Moses delayed Exodus 32 when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain the people Gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him up Make us gods who shall go before us now.

Here's here's where the controversial part is. So in the original language the word translated into English as gods or the word translated into English as God is Always plural okay, so We translate this based on Context and understanding whether or not it's supposed to be gods or God.

Okay, we've followed a Translation tradition here that has translated it plural I think based on the context and I hope you'll see this as we go through it I I think that it's better translated singular and so follow me so up make us a God Who shall go before us?

So they're asking they're like, okay. Moses is gone. He's not coming back. We're gonna have to keep going somewhere. We need a God to be our to be out in front to be our eye our idol because that would be how people would Would move so to speak they would they would go behind their God their idol.

Make us a God who will go before us as for this Moses the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt. We don't know what has become of him. So Aaron said to them Yeah, just skip ahead. They take off a bunch of gold.

So they took off all the gold they gave it to him verse 4 he received the gold from their hand fashioned it with a graving tool and he made a golden calf and they said and so here's another translation change the way I'm understanding this and I'm You you talk to your pastors about it.

This is I think it's in the context. I think this is pretty clear. And he said this is your God. Oh Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt they fashioned this idol to Represent the not some Egyptian God not some other God to represent the God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, right and he says it says verse 5 when Aaron saw this he built an altar before and Aaron made a proclamation and said Tomorrow will be a feast to the Lord.

Because the idol is representative of the Lord in What they're doing you see I think Mistakingly, we've looked at this text sometimes and we think oh the sin that that that the people committed when when Moses was on the mountain is that they turned to idol worship of.

Like they were they were turning to polytheism or abandoning God well, I don't think that's it. I think what their sin was was they were turning to idol worship and they tried to worship God through this means and This means of having an idol and the truth is it was unacceptable worship.

Because that is not the kind of worship that God wants. That's the kind of worship that that the supposed the supposed of gods of the world wanted. They were Crafted they were idols. But no the people of God were not to fashion idols.

You know the commandments to not make a graven image. Particularly don't make a graven image to represent God. But that's what they did and the sin was Despicable it was heinous. It was awful. What was their sin?

Ultimately their sin as I understand it and I think as the text explains is they offered Unacceptable worship and so what I'm gonna say is that Christian Be Careful how you worship God. There's a lot of freedom.

There's a lot of freedom in The forms that our worship can take your church and my church have they look a little different. They look really similar, but they look a little different. You know, there was probably a time when?

If this church probably I'm I don't know anything about you guys. Really. I don't I'm just speculating. There's probably a time when you wouldn't have had a guitar up here and now there is a guitar up here.

There are some churches that just don't have instruments at all. Those are things that we have freedom in but what we don't have freedom in is whether or not we sing. Because we're commanded to sing we're given instruction on on on how to worship God and so Be careful where we don't have absolute freedom to just do whatever we want.

That doesn't mean that you can't worship God and all that you do that is right. You should worship God and all that you do that is right. But especially when you come for a gathered worship, there are certain things that are prescribed that are given the Bible regulates our worship and We are to offer acceptable worship the kind he asks for and in particular as We worship him.

We are to recognize who it is that we are worshiping. You know, if all we do is open a hymnal. And speak words out loud even in tune. But we're just singing a song. We lose sight of the fact that we are singing to the God who has manifested on Mount Sinai or even worse the God who has made flesh and dwelt among us the one who has Reconciled us with the Father through the shed blood on the of the Son on the cross.

Well, then our Worship is not with reverence and awe and it is unacceptable and we're committing the sin. That The people of Israel committed in a way Offering supposedly offering worship. That's unacceptable.

It doesn't mean don't worship because that's unacceptable to the response to this is not. Oh, well, if I can't if I got to be that careful, I you know, I'm just gonna stop singing. I'm just gonna you know, that's not the response either.

No, the response is to recognize who you are worshiping and worship acceptably in reverence and awe so I'm gonna close with a word of prayer and then turn the turn turn it back over to whoever's coming after me Josh or Connolly, but I want to encourage you as we finish this time of worship.

Whether it's through song whether it's through celebration of the Lord's table whether it is through any of what is to come. Recognize that we are worshiping the mighty God. So praise him so worship him so be in awe and reverence of him.

Let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you for this day and we thank you for this text in your word. We thank you that it has clearly revealed to us that as we gather in worship that You You require us to worship.

Well. That you require us to worship appropriately as you have called us to and father. We thank you That you through your son have revealed to us in the fullest way possible who you are. Thank you. Thank you for redeeming us.

Thank you for his shed blood. Thank you for being able to know you. We pray this in Jesus name the one who has reconciled us Amen.