Which Mountain?

Please stand in honor of God's word The Old Testament reading is in Exodus chapter 19 beginning in verse 7

So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the

Lord had commanded him all the people answered together and said All that the Lord has spoken we will do and Moses reported the words of the people to the

Lord And the Lord said to Moses behold I am coming to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when

I speak with you and they also believe you forever When Moses told the words of the people to the

Lord the Lord said to Moses 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 the people and And you shall set limits for the people all around saying take care

Not to go up into the mountain or to 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 Said to the people be ready for the third day and do not go near a woman um in 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 camp trembled when

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 went up like a smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly and As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder

Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder the Lord the

Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain and The Lord called

Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up And the Lord said to Moses go down and warn the people lest they break

Through the lest they break through to the Lord to look Look and may not even perish

Also, let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves lest the

Lord break out against them and Moses said to the Lord the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for your for you yourself warned us saying set limits on the mountain and consecrate it and The Lord said to him go down and come up bringing

Aaron with you But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the

Lord lest he break out against them So Moses went down to the people and told them a

New Testament reading is Revelation 21 1 through 4 Then I saw a new heaven

In a new earth for the first heaven in the first earth that passed away and the sea was no more and I saw the holy

City, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with man

He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as they as their

God He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away

Let's take our Bibles once more and return To the book of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 12

Hebrews chapter 12. I'm gonna be reading verses 18 through 29

Which contains our text today of 18 through 24, please follow as I read 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 come to Mount Zion and to the city of the

Living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable Angels and festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who enroll who are enrolled in heaven 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 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking for if they did not escape when they refused him when warned

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 shall 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 the kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God Acceptable worship with reverence and all for our

God is a consuming fire. Let's pray Father we embark now in understanding the

Word of God and This is not just any book But your word living words words that can shape us words that can change us

Words that will change our attitudes and our thoughts and our behavior a word that offers conviction and hope

It offers us help. I pray that your word would have its effect on this people

Granted Granted father for your glory and our good and we'll thank you in Jesus name.

Amen Two weekends ago

Beck and I were in Portland, Oregon the Pacific Northwest And when you're in that city, you can look out at different areas and see these gigantic mountains

They stand above all the rest and and if you were going hiking up there you might say well

What mountain do I want to hike on? Well, what should I look for? You could go to Mount Jefferson, which is 10 ,402 feet above the ground or Lassen Peak which is 45 feet shorter and You say well 45 feet isn't much.

I'll just go to the one that's closest to the city of Portland I'll fly to Portland and I'll Either one's fine with me.

What if I told you that Mount Jefferson was a volcano and Mount Lassen was just another mountain and what if I told you that two days before you got there that Jefferson had erupted and there was lava coming down the sides and things were blowing up off the top of it and there was smoke all over the place and and these huge Flames shooting up in the air, which one would you choose to which one would you choose to climb?

Well, my guess is you'd probably take the safe one Steer away from the volcano

When our text this morning our author describes two mountains that we can come to Mount Sinai and Mount Zion One is terrifying

While the other is welcoming which one would you choose which one would you choose

But we're not merely talking about mountains here. We're talking about different approaches to God now

These two mountains have much to do with endurance or perseverance. They still our author is still moving us in the direction of understanding our perseverance our endurance in the face of Persecution and the temptation to relieve the pressure by abandoning

Jesus and remember that the hearers of This lengthy sermon have experienced imprisonment ridicule

Humiliation and even the loss of their property because they follow Jesus.

And so what does God tell you? That will help you to endure in the midst of this these kinds of circumstances.

Well, we've seen it He's told us like the heroes of old. You've got to bank on the promises of God You've got to live through the trial with the promises of God you bank on those promises and like Jesus He says you must believe

God's promises And he also says you've got to gain an encouraging perspective in the midst of your trials that in your trials

God is treating you as a son and that he's using even Persecution to move you closer to move you towards holiness and righteousness and peace

He's told us that endurance is a team effort that we're in this together and we strengthen one another for the battle he's told us as we saw a couple weeks ago that it requires holiness and peace and Vigilance and now we come to verses 18 through 24

Let's read them again for you've not come to what may be touched a blazing fire and darkness and gloom

I'm sorry for you have now 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 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 come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God the heavenly

Jerusalem and to innumerable angels and festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven 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 here He still speaks to us the perseverance of endurance in the midst of trials and persecution

He says for for he says for that is in the light of all I've said about persevering because of the fact that you must pursue peace and holiness and rebuff those influences that would

Lure you away from Jesus our pastor writer says you must see endurance in light of these two mountains

These will determine how you endure He says you've not come to Mount Sinai now you say well

It doesn't say Mount Sinai. It doesn't identify. No, but the description he gives is a description that we read in Ezekiel I'm sorry

Exodus 19 the when they came to Mount Sinai. He describes Mount Sinai here

This is the mount where God establishes covenant with the people of Israel. He's saying you haven't come

To this covenant you haven't come to this one. He's just summarizing in these verses

He's just summarizing everything he has said to us in the rest of the book of Hebrews This is a summary if you will

Jesus is superior to the Old Covenant and he's established the new covenant Well, what was

Mount Sinai like when he established that covenant with Israel? Well, you could touch it.

You say wait a minute. It just said a little bit ago. You couldn't touch it Well, you could touch it in the sense of it was an earthly Mountain it was part of the created order that will pass away

You see in that sense it could be touched and I remember what he told us in chapter 9

You remember he said things like this not even the first covenant now Even the first covenant has regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come Then through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands that is not of this creation right

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rights

But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these for Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands

Which are copies of the true things but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf

You remember all the way he emphasized that the tabernacle was earthly and would pass away same with Mount Sinai It's something that's part of the created order.

It's going to pass away. He says you have not come to the mount that will pass away

Nevertheless as God descended in all his holiness this mountain proved to be dreadful in sight and in sound

Blazing fire God descended on this mountain with blazing fire fire.

It's like fire erupting from a volcano As he descended on that mountain there was darkness gloom and tempest darkness and gloom as as smoke surrounded this mountain and and and as as as a thick cloud

Surrounded that mountain not to mention. He said something about a tempest There must have been some wind blowing or something was happening.

That was just frightful The people were stunned by the sound of a trumpet that kept getting louder and louder and louder

And the people were also given a horrifying message Don't touch that mountain or you will die and even if an animal touches that mountain he must die

That's a horrifying message and the whole site was Disturbing it produced this appalling fear on their part

The people were so frightened by the sight and the sound of it all that Moses writes in Exodus 20 now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain

Smoking the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off and said to Moses You speak to us and we will listen but do not let

God speak to us lest we die They were so terrified. They were so frightened that they were saying if God speaks to us, we're gonna die

You you talk to us you you tell us what he says Moses himself it says in our text found himself trembling which is interesting because this is the one that God spoke to face -to -face

And yet at this site He was horrified In short coming to this mountain was an absolutely terrifying experience

It would be like It would be like standing at the foot of a volcano as a tornado passed over you while you're fleeing someone who's threatened to kill you

Can you imagine that would you be calm in that kind of a situation? I don't think so This is where they found themselves as they stood at the foot of that mountain

The glory of the Lord consecrated that mountain with his dangerous holiness This was a holiness so dreadful

So dreadful and terrifying that it made approaching God impossible

That's what that mountain is like But isn't that how our pastors described the

Old Covenant all the way through the book? Under the Old Covenant God was unapproachable cut off from the people

You approach God through priests and high priests and rituals and sacrifice

Except that only the high priest could really come into his presence and he could only do it once a year

There were barriers to approaching God and our writer says you've not come to this mountain

You've not come to that mountain That's not the mountain you've come to now remember some of his congregation in order to relieve the pressure of persecution

We're heading back to that mountain That's part of what he's saying here Remember some in order to relieve the pressure of temptation of being followers of Jesus said well

We'll just go back to the legal religion of Judaism. At least we'll we'll stay out of trouble that way

But essentially he's saying oh, yeah, you can go that way, but this is the mountain you're going to come to then

They may want to reduce the pressure of persecution. But in so doing they return to this terrifying mountain

Do you want to abandon this gracious Savior for the terror of that Old Covenant?

No, he says Dear people when it comes to living for Jesus for enduring persecution

You have not come to that mountain when it comes to the strength that you need to endure in the midst of difficulty and persecution

You've not gone to that mountain when it comes to persecution. You have a high priest who sympathizes with you

Right, he's walked in your shoes He sympathizes with you and he's the one who represents you to God when it comes to endurance

You have the promises of God not the threats You have the promises of God when it comes to hardship.

You have the fatherly love of God That's what you have. You haven't come to this mountain

You've not come to that mountain when it comes to living for Jesus. You've not come to this mountain

He says instead you have come to Mount Zion verse 22

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable angels and festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven 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 Now what is Mount Zion?

What is Mount Zion? You see that scene all the way through the Old Testament in the Psalms and the prophets even in the historical narratives

Mount Zion. Well, let's put it this way the seventh seven years into his reign over Israel David conquered a

Jebusite city called Jerusalem It belonged to the Jebusites. He conquered it.

He made the capital Capital Zion was one of the hills on which Jerusalem rested and soon

Jerusalem was also known as Zion or Mount Zion Solomon built his temple specifically on that particular hill on Mount Zion Thus it was identified as the dwelling place of God on earth

On Mount Zion is where he was It was the city chosen by God above all the other tribes by which he would put in which he would put his name

It was the meeting place between God and man and it became the center of all their religious affection

And so you read things like this in Psalm 48 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our

God his holy mountain Beautiful in elevation is the joy of all the earth

Mount Zion in the far north the city of the great king Within her citadels

God has made himself known as a fortress Let Mount Zion be glad let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments

Walk about Zion go around her number her towers consider Well her ramparts go through her citadels that you may tell the next generation that this is

God Our God forever and ever he will guide us forever. This was

I it was the city of the Living God Now, where have you come?

You've come to Zion the city of the Living God which he identifies now as the heavenly

Jerusalem this now is the heavenly Jerusalem Mount Zion is no longer in a place in the

Modern -day state of Israel, even though there's still a Mount Zion there. That's not where the Zion is any longer

It's a heavenly city a heavenly Jerusalem. It's the city that will one day descend to earth

We heard it already this morning in our New Testament reading I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more

And I saw the Holy City New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband

Mount Zion has not come down yet is in a spiritual realm But we have already have access to it.

We have full citizenship in it. It is accessible to us It was once the meeting place between God and man

For the Old Covenant people it is now the meeting place for God and man for the New Covenant people of God and our writer

Has already assured us Since we have a great high priest over the house of God we can draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith

We have access to this heavenly Zion He says you've come to innumerable angels in festal gathering what an incredible picture that is

I mean, I've got a particular picture in my mind when I read that now the Old Covenant Well, look back at chapter 2 real quick chapter 2 verse 1

He's remember. It's been a long time ago Pastor Andrew asked me this morning.

Hey, do you remember how you described? How Jesus is described in chapter 1 and I said no

And I thought I thought well just calling everybody else they remember all my sermons That's right

That is the right response to that. All right, but let's look just as a reminder

Hebrews 2 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we've heard lest we drift away from it for since the message declared by Angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just Restribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great?

Salvation you remember that Old Covenant message was delivered by angels in all its terror and dread

Angels were there and all that fire and smoke and dread and terror angels were there

But now you see them at a heavenly festival You don't see them as they're described in Deuteronomy Where they came with that Old Covenant you see them instead in Festal gathering you see angels

Not pointing you see angels not gathered to punish but rather to party

Right. They're not pointing to judgment. They're pointing to celebration now

That's the mountain you've come to the place where the angels are Celebrating Okay You've come to the assembly of the firstborn

Enrolled in heaven now. What's interesting about this is this is an assembly of firstborn you say wait a minute firstborn

That's one person That's one person who? Who's supposed to receive all the blessing in the inheritance

But you got a whole bunch of firstborn How does that work simply this

Jesus is the firstborn par excellence He is the firstborn not not in terms of firstborn as we discussed in Sunday school this morning

Not as firstborn of creation in sense of he's created first. No, not at all but firstborn in in the sense of favor of the one who will inherit all the blessing and all who have trusted in Jesus are

In union with him and thus become the firstborn All the people of Christ are the firstborn in light of that Union and our birthright here's the point it's an assembly of people in which our birthright will never be bartered away as Esau did our birthright is guaranteed our

Inheritance is guaranteed. We are the firstborn and we are enrolled in heaven our names are enrolled in the

Lamb's Book of Life and So he envisions here all the Saints from years ago who are now in heaven and us

Today all in this great assembly of people who of the firstborn who've had their names enrolled in the books of heaven

We are part of that group the church at peace and glory the church militant now on the earth

We are all part of that one assembly. We have come to that assembly We are part of all those who will inherit

Glory, he says you've come you've come to God the judge of all

Now here he talks about God as the judge Yet on this mountain.

This judge does not strike terror and fear I I pondered this why does he say

God is the judge of all here in the context of? This mountain

The meeting place between God and us the place of celebration the mountain where the heirs of God's riches rejoice in heaven and on earth

Why does he point out that he's the judge of all here's what I think we've come to the God who vindicates and rewards us

We've come to the God who vindicates and rewards us. This is the judge remember chapter 6

Remember this is the judge who is not Unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name and serving the

Saints This is the judge who looks at you and says I see your service, and I've noted it

I've noted all the things you've done in serving the Saints because you're loving my name by that and I am

NOT gonna overlook that I Will never overlook any small thing that you have done. That's the judge

It's the judge that will vindicate us before the world on the day of judgment He will say to the world these have been all always been my people

These are my people all of you called them bigots all of you who called them haters all of you who called them narrow -minded and Intolerant guess what?

They're my people That's the God That we have come to This is the

God whose judgment will never be against us, but always for us

You've come to the spirit of the righteous made perfect He's referring here now to the Old Testament saints that we've been looking at in chapter 11 all those who've been declared righteous

Because of their faith on this mountain you find those Old Testament saints who've gone before us their spirits are in heaven

The resurrection hasn't happened yet. So their spirits are in heaven heaven They've been declared righteous by their faith and now they're perfected we saw earlier

They're perfected along with us when Jesus came and did the work that he did on the cross. We all reached perfection remember

He made perfect those are being perfected Not only do we see them in the record of the

Old Testament, but God reveals that they're in heaven Waiting for you this great cloud of witnesses that we look at They're alive you ever thought that you ever thought that thought

They're alive They're in heaven. They're waiting for you You've come to that mountain.

You've come to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant We've come to Jesus who's brought into force the new covenant

Hasn't this been the burden of the entire book? He's bringing us to this place where he summed it up by talking about this great mountain that we've come to And that part of that mountain is that new covenant?

brought into force by Jesus Haven't we've been told that we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens

Haven't we've been told that we can with confidence draw near to the throne of grace Because of that covenant haven't we've been told that we can draw near to God Because of that new covenant a covenant it does not require rituals and sacrifice and and guards the presence of God Instead we've come to a covenant that opens the way to God.

God's presence is no longer barred to us his his his Person is no longer guarded

We can run into the throne room of God because of this covenant You've come he says to the sprinkled blood of Jesus Just as Moses sprinkled the blood to bring that first covenant into force so Jesus in the same way sprinkled his blood and brought a new covenant into force a

Covenant is always brought into force by blood and Jesus Blood sprinkled blood is that which has done it represents the infinitely costly sacrifice of Jesus His death secured the better promises of the new covenant his death secured our forgiveness

His death secured the transformation of our hearts and changed us his death secured access to God We've come to this mountain where this new covenant is

We've access to God. We've been changed. We've been forgiven and it speaks a better word than the blood of Abel Well, what's that all about?

Abel's blood was spilled on the ground through the violence of his brother Cain and it cried out to God He cried out to God Protesting the murder and appealing for justice his blood cried out that his murder was unjust and there should be justice

But the blood of Jesus spilled with the violence of his opponents declares to God that his death his blood meets all the demands of justice and declares a message of forgiveness and Cleansing and peace.

It's better than the blood of Abel It's better than the blood of Abel So he says you've come to this mountain

This is the mountain you've come to if you come to this mountain, you will find the strength to endure

If you realize that this is the mountain you've come to you realize that you will have the strength to endure

It communicates the power to endure here you find the meeting place with God the

God who judges those who stand against you and rewards you for your faithfulness

Here you will find celebration and joy here You find first the firstborn enrolled in the books of heaven those who along with you have fought the battle

And now are at peace Here you find those faithful ones who believe the promises of God Revealing that those who believe his promises in the midst of trial will have the strength to endure

Here you find Jesus the new covenant and the sprinkling of his blood Guaranteeing your welcome from God when you you can only persevere when you have hope and this mountain

Gives you hope There's nothing but hope on this mountain, why would you trade that for anything else?

So he says you've come to Mount Zion But this is more than a picture It's more than a metaphor.

It's more than a symbol You have come to the heavenly Jerusalem. You are on that mountain and here on that mountain the atmosphere is grace

It's not the acrid smell of smoke and fire

Here you feel welcome joy freedom and communion with God Some of you here have never trusted

Jesus Listen, I want to tell you something When you come to Jesus by faith you come to this mountain

This is what God holds out to you when you say I am a sinner.

I have no Claim on you God none. I don't have any

I'm a sinner who deserves your punishment But I know that Jesus had taken that punishment his righteousness can be given to me so that I'm right with you

Then you come to the place where there's freedom and joy. There's grace access to God Why would you turn away from that Why would you turn away from that?

So he says You have come to Mount Zion to the city of the

Living God father How we thank you for a mountain where the atmosphere is bright and lovely

Where it's grace We can breathe deeply of that father help us to see this is not merely a metaphor

But this is what we truly have through Jesus Father help us

Help us to realize that we are planted on that mountain when hard times come

When we are marginalized When we may be persecuted help us to remember the mountain upon which we stand

That we might have the strength through grace to follow

Jesus Father remind us that this is our dwelling place now that in every day

All of these things are true of us. Thank you for your grace.

So magnificently portrayed to us this morning God, I pray that you would help us to live on this mountain.