Hebrews 12:18-29 | The Two Mountains

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Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma TN Pastor Jeff Rice

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If you will turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12, we'll look at verses 18 through 29.
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Hebrews chapter 12, 18 through 29. As always, it is great to stand before you today to proclaim the word of God.
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Father, thank you. Lord, we love you. We ask for your grace and mercy to be upon us, those that listen to your word, and me as well,
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Lord, as I speak it forth. Give us grace. Give us mercy. Help us to understand, to have ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart that beats for you,
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Lord. We love you. Give us grace. Jesus' name, amen. All right, so our theme for this
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Lord's Day is the two mountains. We have in the text Mount Zion, I mean,
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Mount Sinai versus Mount Zion. And just like the first century
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Jews, everyone who comes to God has to face
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God on one of these two mountains. Now, this has always been a favorite portion of scripture for me.
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But I don't think, my wife's nodding her head, but I don't think I've ever really understand it as I do today.
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I just hope that I'm able to articulate it well. One mountain is judgment, while the other mountain is of grace.
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The question is, which mountain are you on? Are you on the mountain of judgment, or are you on the mountain of grace?
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The truth is that there's only one mountain by which we can approach
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God. The Bible is clear. God dwells in unapproachable light.
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Jesus said, no one can come to the Father unless they come through Him. And also in John chapter 6, no one can come to Jesus unless they're drawn by the
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Father, which is why the gospel is so important, that it's through the gospel we are regenerated in order to receive
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Christ, to get to the Father. And that's only one mountain that's done.
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So read with me our text, beginning in verse 18.
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For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest.
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And to the sound of a trumpet and a voice of whose words may the hearers beg that no further message be spoken to them.
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For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.
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Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear.
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But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living
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God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable angels and festival gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrobed in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better blood, a better word than the blood of Abel.
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See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.
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For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.
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At that time, his voice shook the earth.
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But now he has promised, yet once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.
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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.
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Therefore, let us be grateful to receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and all, for our
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God is a consuming fire. In our outline today, we will notice that the unseen is left after what is seen is taken away.
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We're going to notice that it's the unseen, the things that you cannot view with your eyes, it's what is left after God removes the things that you can see with your eyes.
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Sounds a little different, taken from where we were in chapter 11, right? And as we transition, again, chapter 11 tells us that the things that are seen gives evidence of the things that are not seen.
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We see this in chapter 11, verse 3. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of the things, out of things that are, so that what is seen was not made out of the things that are visible, meaning that the created things did not create created things.
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It's what is unseen that created the created things, and God is going to remove some unseen, some seen things in order to reveal the unseen.
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In our time together, we walk through this text, and it directly relates and points to creation.
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The things that are created gives evidence of a creator, and I've made this analogy several times.
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We know that a builder built this building because we are in a building. Buildings are proof of builders.
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Creation is proof of a creator. But it also points to a person living out their faith as evidence to what they say they believe.
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We meet people all the time that profess to be Christian. We meet people all the time that profess to be Christians. For you and I, it's their life, the life that they live that gives evidence of their profession.
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Now, for the believer themselves, the believer is not to look into themself and judge their self by their fruit to see if they're a
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Christian. The believer is to look to Christ. Like Graham, we're to live our life looking to Christ.
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When the believer looks within himself to see if he is a Christian, that's pietism. The fruit that we bear is not for us to judge ourselves, it's for the others to judge us.
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You will be judged by your fruit by others. You are to look to Christ. If at any time you take your eyes off of Christ, you are going to fail, you are going to fall.
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The time that it takes for you to look within, listen, your pride is going to grip you.
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It's going to have you in a headlock. I can remember a time where I was reading my
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Bible. I think I was in my room for like five hours or so. I spent most of the day reading my
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Bible. And I said, this is back early when I became a Christian. I said something stupid.
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I said, oh, I didn't sin. I stayed in my room. Boop. It's like God slapped me upside my head.
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Pride snuck in. I looked within myself. We are not to look within ourselves.
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We are to look to Christ. But the life that we live is evidence of what we say we believe to those around us, to this, whether it be to other
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Christians or this lost and dying world. And in chapter 12, God removes the evidence of an earthly kingdom people to reveal the heavenly kingdom people.
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Point number one, Mount Sinai can be touched. Mount Sinai is the mountain we read about in the book of Exodus.
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The writer is here is pointing to a time where when God gave to Moses the law, right?
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He first appeared to Moses in a burning bush, right? We remember that? Exodus chapter three.
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He now appears in Exodus chapter 19 and 20 as a burning mountain, as a mountain burning with fire and smoke.
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So chapter three, burning bush. Chapter 19 and 20, a mountain burning with fire and smoke.
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The fire and smoke here represents judgment because the law that was going to be given.
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If you break this law, you will be judged. The Hebrew people are gathered around the mountain, which they could touch.
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They could actually walk over to the mountain and touch it. But if they touched it, even if an animal touched it, they would be stoned.
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They would be put to death. Imagine having a group of people over just throwing a rock up.
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Go ahead, touch it. You would be stoned. If an animal, if your animal, whether it's,
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I don't know if they had pets back then, it really doesn't say, but if your livestock or whatever it was creeped over and touched the mountain, you had to stone the animal.
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Judgment on Mount Sinai. So although they could touch it, if they did, they would die.
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And the writer is telling them, as well as you and I under the new covenant, that is not so.
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That is not so. We come to a different mountain. Look at verses 18 and 21.
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I'll slow it down just a little bit. And it says, for you, Christian, if you are a
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Christian, for you, Christian, have not come to what may be touched.
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A blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and to the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further message be spoken to them.
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They heard the voice of God, and they told Moses, you go talk to God. We'll stay over here.
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We don't want that. We don't want to hear his voice. Did you imagine a
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Christian saying that today? They don't want to hear the words of God. We have not come to that.
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For they could not even endure the order that it was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.
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Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear.
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Moses was afraid to approach the mountain. He trembled in fear.
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The writer is saying, you have not come to God in this way. That's not the mountain that we approach
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God in. No one can approach him. He dwells in an unapproachable light.
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Mount Sinai is a mountain of smoke and fire of judgment. Mount Sinai represents the old covenant, which represents the law.
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The earthly kingdom people could not approach God outside of sacrifice and animals.
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And even then it was through prophets. And he added to that, the law, the statutes and rules by which they must keep in order to live in the land.
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And we've already walked through all of that. I shouldn't have to touch on it. But the law is you keep the law and you live in the land.
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And as they're entering into this, they're given this law and then they're supposed to be entering into this land soon.
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But we know from studying Hebrews in Exodus that they did not listen.
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They did not obey. They did not believe God. So they did not enter that land. It was the next generation that entered the land.
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So as we transition, we have already established that only one person was able to keep the law, right?
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As we're walking through the book of Hebrews, we have established only one person has been able to keep the law.
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And that is Jesus Christ. And by doing so, he has earned the land, notably the whole world for those who put their trust in him.
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Point number two, Mount Zion cannot be touched.
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We're gonna walk through verses 22 through 24 to look at this. Now, Mount Zion here is representing the new covenant in the text.
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And we also see this in the book of Galatians. Just like Mount, I mean,
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Mount Zion represents the new covenant, just like Mount Sinai represents the old covenant.
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Now, of course, you could get on a plane, go to Jerusalem, land in Jerusalem, take a car, take a hike, walk up and actually be on Mount Zion and touch
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Mount Zion. Like you can actually go to Jerusalem and touch Mount Zion, which is not much to see if you do.
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And I just made a statement that Mount Zion is something that you can't touch. But in reality, you can actually fly there, get off the plane, go to where it is, get on the mountain, bend down and touch it.
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The writer here seems to be spiritualizing the mountain. I know for you all millennials,
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I know my friend really loves that, especially because he's an idealist.
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But it's true. The writer is spiritualizing the mountain. This is what he's doing. Being that Jesus is the son of David that fulfilled the
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Davidic promises, Jesus is the one who sits on the throne of David in heaven.
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Can you see the throne of David? Anybody, can you see the throne of David?
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You cannot because it's in heaven. And so this is where our writer is saying that Zion was known as the city of David.
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Jesus as son of David sits on David's throne, ruling and reigning, putting all of his enemies under his feet.
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Right now he is on the throne. If you look at 2
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Samuel 5, just to establish that Zion is the city of David, verse one, then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Herob and said, behold, we are your bone and flesh.
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And times passed when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel.
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And the Lord said to you, you shall be shepherd of my people Israel and you shall be prince over Israel.
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All the elders of Israel came to the king at Herob and King David made a covenant with them at Herob before the
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Lord. And they anointed David king over Israel.
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David was 30 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 40 years.
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At Herob he reigned over Judah seven years and six months.
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And at Jerusalem, he reigned over all Israel and Judah for 33 years.
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And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land who said to David, you will not come here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off thinking
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David cannot come in here. Nevertheless, David took the strong hold of Zion that is the city of David.
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Also in second Chronicles five, verse two, this is speaking of Solomon now.
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Then Solomon, the son of David, Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers, houses of people of Israel in Jerusalem to bring the ark of the covenant of the
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Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. The throne of David, listen, is no longer on earth.
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We're not waiting for Jesus to return and to sit on a physical throne in order for him to be king.
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Jesus is king right now on the throne of David right now at the right hand of the father ruling and reigning.
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His kingdom is now. And if you're in Christ, you are part of his kingdom people.
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And yet we cannot with our eyes see this kingdom. The writer names off six things that a person receives when he enters the new covenant, which is spiritual
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Mount Zion. One, the kingdom of God.
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Two, angels and festival gathering. Three, the church. Four, God himself.
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Five, all covenant saints. And six, Jesus Christ. We will quickly look at these one by one.
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The first one, the kingdom of God. We'll see this in 1222a.
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1222a, but you Christian have come to Mount Zion, which is the new covenant.
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But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living
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God, the heavenly Jerusalem. The city of the living
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God, the heavenly Jerusalem is the kingdom of God.
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The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem is the kingdom of God.
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So when Jesus speaks about the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, it's synonymous. He says that it's at hand, it is coming.
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He is speaking about the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. This is where your millennial perspective matters.
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If your millennial perspective does not have an already but not yet, that it's already happening, but yet it's not yet fully finished, most of scripture,
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I would say, and especially Hebrews 12, 18 to 29, will not make any sense to you. So if you will look with me at Revelation chapter 21, just to give a, just to touch on it for a second.
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Listen to what is being said. John speaking says, then
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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.
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And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man and he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their
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God. So what we have here is an already and not yet.
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So I take the position like I was talking about earlier in Sunday school class of a preterist interpretation and in it,
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I would say that the, where it says that the new heavens and the new earth, I would say that that is the city of the living
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God, the new Jerusalem. And that's what this tells you right here.
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So our text says the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. So that's what it says in our text, the city of the living
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God, the heavenly Jerusalem and revelation, it says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth, which
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I would say is old covenant Israel had passed away and the sea was no more.
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And then I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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And so I would say that the already portion of this that we can see is you and me, right?
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It's the church, it tells you what it is. It's a bride prepared, adorned for her husband.
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And so ask yourself, is the bride of Christ the church?
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Yes. Is the church on earth? Yes. And so in some way, there's an already and not yet perspective of the new heavens and the new earth on right now as we are on the earth, the church.
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It's not fully constimated because we cannot see it.
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When Jesus returns the second time, puts his feet on the earth, judges the living the dead, then it will be constimated.
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Then what was faith will be sight, but not until then.
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The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem is not a geopolitical kingdom at this time.
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And yet the writer is telling his listeners as well as us that we have come to Mount Zion, which is the new covenant.
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If we have come to Mount Zion, Mount Zion is spiritual. We have entered into a spiritual kingdom.
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The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the kingdom of God.
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The second one, angels and festival gathering, Hebrews 12, 22b.
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And the innumerable angels and festival gathering. Now we know from scripture and we study this as we walk through Galatians, we went real deep into this, that during the time of the law, when the law was given to Moses, that it was angels who handed the tablets to Moses.
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And I believe what the writer is doing here is that he is pointing back to the birth of the
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Messiah. So old covenant, when the old covenant was given to Israel, there was a festival gathering of angels that came down on the mountain as God wrote on the tablets to pass to Moses these tablets.
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And I believe that's what's taking place here as well. Except for this time, it's through Christ, it's at the birth of the
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Messiah and how angels were seen on earth proclaiming Christ, proclaiming
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Jesus. And I believe he is saying that this was a festival gathering.
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We had angels like when you read the old covenant, like you see here and there angels appear and you'll see here and there some demonic activity, but not a whole lot.
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But the moment when Christ entered into creation, angels were popping up everywhere.
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They were visiting all different types of people, Mary, Joseph, John the
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Baptist's father, right now his name is escaping, Zechariah, yeah. The wise man, in dreams and stuff like that, telling them not to go back and proclaim or tell
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Herod. Activity was taking place, angelic activity. But also when you, in the life of Jesus, as you're reading the gospel, there's a whole lot of demonic activity, people being possessed by demons, stuff that you don't really see much throughout the
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Old Testament. So I believe what the writer is doing is speaking about this, that this was a festival gathering.
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And it's not a gathering of the law, but one to proclaim grace. And he's saying that whenever we come to this mountain, we are entering what took place that the angels were speaking about.
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So the third one is the church, Hebrews 12, 23a. And to the assembling of the firstborn who are enrobed in heaven.
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So the firstborn is speaking about the firstborn of the dead.
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And so, and this is what 1
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Corinthians 15 is all about, but we're not gonna read all of 1 Corinthians 15 for a proof text.
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So we'll just go to Colossians chapter one. We read this not long ago. But just to refresh your mind, verse 15 is gonna talk about the firstborn, but it's gonna give the interpretation in verse 18.
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Verse 15, he, speaking of Jesus, is the image of the invisible
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God. So he is a visible representation when he was on earth of the invisible
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God, the firstborn of all creation. So that right there leaves people questioning, but it's gonna answer what that means here in a minute.
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For by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, where the thrones or the minions or rulers or authorities are all things that were created through him and for him.
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And before him, all things and in him are all things held together.
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And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might have preeminence.
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So this is speaking about his resurrection. Firstborn means, meaning when you go into 1
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Corinthians, is that because he was the first fruit, he was the firstborn who entered in the ground as a seed and came up glorified, you and I, when we believe in him, when we die on the last day, just like he was resurrected, we will be resurrected.
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So we are entering in to the firstborn of all creation.
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And as we gather together as Christians, as the body of Christ, we are the assembly of the firstborn
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Jesus Christ and that we are enrobed in heaven. And that there's again, an already but not yet aspect when it comes to this.
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Ephesians chapter two, verses four and seven says this, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love in which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ.
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So that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ.
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So just like the kingdom of heaven, Jesus, it's on earth already, but still not yet.
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I mean, still not yet consummated, fully running.
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There's no walls put up, there is no kingdom. We cannot see this with our eyes.
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In order to see it, you have to be born again. And that same way, how heaven has come to earth, when we become
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Christians, we are already in heaven, yet we are on earth. He has raised us, he has caused, it says that he is, by his grace we have been saved.
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It says that we were dead in our trespasses and sins and he made us alive by grace we have been saved and he has seated us with him in the heavens.
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So there's an already not yet with our bodies. We're bodily on earth, but on an already not yet, we're already in heaven.
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It goes both ways. There's heavens coming down to earth and we are going up to heaven.
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Again, if you don't have an already not yet eschatology, it's really hard to understand scripture. The fourth one,
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God. Hebrews 12, 23,
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B and C. The judge,
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I mean, and to God, the judge of all things. All right, again, if you go back to Revelation, just look at Revelation chapter 21, verses two and three.
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It says, and I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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God is preparing us as a bride adorned for her husband, our husband, Jesus Christ. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
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And he will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself shall be with them as their
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God. We receive God. Right now we have God. God is not dwelling in unapproachable light from you and I.
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We have, God has drawn us to his son and through his son, we get to the father.
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Jesus says, no one can come to the father unless through him. We have God. We have Jesus. We have the father.
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We are filled with his spirit. We have God now, right now, not in some future present that we'll have him.
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We have him right now. And the fifth one is, oh, covenant saints. This is
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Hebrews 12, 23d. And the spirits of righteous made perfect.
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So this is telling us things that we have come to. And I believe right here, he is pointing back to that great cloud of witnesses that we just got done reading.
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Verse 20, verse one of chapter 12 says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.
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And so right here, we're talking about the righteous made perfect. I mean, the word, how does it say it?
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The spirits of the righteous made perfect. I believe that it's pointing us back to old covenant saints.
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They too were made righteous by Jesus Christ, by believing in the promise.
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We spoke about this. So it's just kind of reiterating a lot that we've already walked through and taught.
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So I'm just hoping that I can say a couple of words. It'll take your mind back to that message and you're able to put the pieces together that they were saved by looking forward to a promise the same way that we're saved by looking back to the promise.
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They believe that a Messiah was coming. He came because they believed in the promise.
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They were made righteous. And you and I, when we believe in that same promise, they said, for now it's fulfilled.
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We are made righteous. We are in that same family with them. They have
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God, we have God. They're in heaven. We're already not yet in heaven with them.
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And the sixth one, Jesus, Hebrews 12, 24.
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And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant to the sprinkle blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
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When we enter the new covenant by faith alone in Christ alone. And this text is telling us that those who receive
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Jesus get Jesus. Now, right now, present tense.
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When you receive Jesus, you have Jesus. You will get what you receive. If you don't receive
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Jesus, you don't get Jesus. If you are not a Christian, you do not have Jesus Christ.
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But if you have received Christ by faith, this text says that we have come to Jesus, right?
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We have come to Mount Zion. We have come to the city of the
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Lord. We have come to the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable angels gathered in festival gathering to the assembly of the firstborn.
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We are the church. We have come to the church. We have come to God, the judge of all. We have come to the old covenant believers, the spirits of righteous that are made perfect.
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We have come to Jesus, who is the mediator of new covenant. By receiving
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Jesus, we receive all these great benefits. What the old covenant believers receive is no different than what we receive.
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Jesus, we have God. The writer's trying to tell them that there is no difference.
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There's nothing different. Those that are with God, they all went the same way, by faith, by believing, and the promise.
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The writer was listing all the great benefits that we get through Mount Zion, and the last but not least benefit that we get is
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Christ, the son of the living God. It says that he is the mediator of a new covenant.
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Now, listen here. Not only is he the mediator of the mediator, but that his blood speaks a better word than Abel.
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So, when you go back to chapter 11, you read verse four. By faith,
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Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice. So, Abel offered God a sacrifice.
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It says a better acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous.
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God commended him by accepting his gift, through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
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Right here, it's telling us that the part of him that still speaks is this blood that was spilt.
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It speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. So, Christ speaks, what
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Christ done speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. This reminds us, so the writer is reminding us of the sacrifice of Abel in order to get our attention on the sacrifice of Christ, and he's saying that his sacrifice is greater.
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So, he's kind of just correlating the blood here. Again, going back to the whole point of Hebrews, the supremacy of Jesus over Abel, and the sufficiency of Jesus over Abel, that Jesus is greater, and that Jesus' sacrifice was greater.
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As we transition, the new covenant, the kingdom of God, was established by Jesus.
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There was no new covenant until Jesus Christ came and established it, the death of the testator.
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We also walk through that. So, unless you are born again, given faith to believe, you cannot see or enter this kingdom.
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It's invisible. You cannot see it. It's invisible. Now, if we were to establish a kingdom on earth and say, look, the kingdom of God is over there, it's in Moscow, or it's in, you know, somewhere, but it's over there, and if we drive there, we can see it with our eyes, and we can enter it with our feet.
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We can walk in it. And if we say that, if we truly believe that, then we're saying that no one can be born again, right?
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This is my big problem with a lot of post -meal theonomy ideas, theonomic ideas, is that we do not establish the kingdom of God.
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The kingdom of God has already been established. Jesus is on the throne in heaven. There's already not yet.
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We are his people. We're on earth. In order to enter this kingdom, to be a part of the church, to receive
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Christ, receive these great benefits, to be with all these festival gatherings and everything that we just walked through, you have to be born again to see it.
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You have to be born again to enter it. You're entering into an invisible kingdom. Why?
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Because the throne is in heaven. Point number three, the warning. Verses 25 through 39. As we walk through this, verse 25, this'll be fairly short.
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Verse 25 is speaking once again, comparing Moses with Jesus. In verse 26 and 27, he's comparing the old covenant and the new covenant.
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And in verses 28 and 29, he gives the graceful warning. Verse 25, let's read that.
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See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. So this is speaking about Jesus, this message of Jesus.
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For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned on earth, much less will they escape if they reject him who warned from heaven.
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So right here it says, for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned on earth, this is
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Moses, much less will they escape if they reject him who warns from heaven, Jesus.
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The one who warned on earth was Moses. The law came through Moses, John 117.
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The one who warns from heaven was Jesus. Grace and truth comes through Jesus Christ, John 117.
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For the law came through Moses, grace and truth comes through Jesus Christ. The warning from Moses was to keep the law to live in the land.
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The warning from Jesus is to turn from self -righteousness and to trust him, to trust in him.
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The Jewish people were removed from the land for not keeping the law. And if you do, it's worse for you, right?
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Listen, it's worse for you. They were removed from the land for not keeping the law, but it's worse for you.
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If you do not repent and put your faith in Jesus, you will not escape hell, the text says.
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How shall you escape? Because if they didn't escape who warned from earth, it says much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.
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We're not going to escape. If we reject Christ, we're not going to escape. Verse 26 and 27, at the time his voice shook the earth, again, this is pointing back to the giving of the law, but now he has promised yet once more, not only to shake the earth, but also the heavens.
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The phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken. That is that the things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may be seen, may remain.
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So that means that the things that you cannot see cannot be shaken. So if you go to Exodus, this gives a short summation of the story that we've been talking about.
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Exodus chapter 19, look at verses 16 through 19. It reads, on the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled.
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Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.
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Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire.
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The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kennel and the whole mountain trembled greatly.
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And the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder.
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Imagine how terrifying that was. The old covenant was given and it shook the earth.
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When the old covenant was given, it shook the earth. When the law of Moses was given his ministry, the ministry that was to establish the
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Mosaic law, the ministry of Jesus was one of faith and repentance.
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Mark chapter one, verse 15 says that the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.
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Imagine, remember the heavenly Jerusalem is the kingdom of God. It's at hand, repent.
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And believe the gospel, turn from self -righteousness and turn to God by trusting in Jesus Christ.
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And I mentioned this earlier in Sunday school and we'll read it about an earthquake. In Matthew chapter 27, verse 50,
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Jesus cried out again with a loud voice. And we know from John that his words were, it's finished.
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And he yielded up his spirit and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth shook and the rocks split.
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The death of the testator. Jesus Christ dies, the kingdom of the covenant has been inaugurated.
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And also that in the 70 AD when Jerusalem is judged, it's only the new covenant on earth.
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It's only the kingdom of God because what you were able to see is no longer established, it's been removed.
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And now what you cannot see, the new covenant, the kingdom of God is what is real, is what we enter.
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We don't enter what was able to be seen, God removed that and the shaking of having a son, crucified for our sins.
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Now the kingdom that we enter, it's not geopolitical, it's not something that you can say, hey, there it is and walk into it.
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Something that you have to be born again. And this shaking, God removes the things that are visible, which is the earthly kingdom in order that the things that cannot be seen remains the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven.
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You can, and so again, as we're talking about this, the whole time you just need to be thinking the new covenant.
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The old covenant is removed, the new covenant is established. Verse 28 and 29, he says, therefore, meaning since that is true, therefore, let us be grateful to receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
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And thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and all for our God is a consuming fire.
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His grace, his graceful warning is for us to be grateful for a kingdom that cannot be shaken, the unseen.
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God is not going to put an end to this kingdom. This, right, like we'll get into it in Sunday school class where upon that generation to whom
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Jesus is speaking about, that nothing has ever happened to it or after it will be so great.
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And the part of it that's so great that can never be redone is that he removed his covenant from them.
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He removed the old covenant from the Jews. God is not going to remove the new covenant from Christianity.
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This will always be the covenant, receiving Jesus by faith, being born again, living your life in faith.
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This is the covenant, the Holy Spirit living in us. This is what's established.
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It will not ever go away. And so we are to be grateful for this new covenant.
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So the warning is to be grateful for the new covenant.
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And we are called to worship God in the way that God has prescribed for us to worship, which is spirit and truth.
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Under the new covenant, we are filled with his spirit and we have his truth. So you go back and you read chapter eight of Hebrews.
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And it tells us that those who are in the new covenant well, so Ezekiel 36 talks about the removing of our heart of stone, giving us a heart of flesh, sprinkling us with clean water and putting a spirit in us that we obey his law.
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And it's looking forward to the new covenant that God has made.
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And that those that are in God's covenant, we know God, we don't need people to tell us to know
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God. If you're in the new covenant, you don't need people to tell you to know God because you know God. And when we worship
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God, we worship him in our spirit because we know the truth. We know the gospel.
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We know what Jesus has done for us. And under the new covenant, we are again, we are filled with his spirit.
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We have his truth. And those of us who have this truth, worship him in the spirit.
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It tells us that we are not to think of him lightly because he is a consuming fire.
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So the warning to Christian is, you have his spirit, you know his truth, don't think of him lightly, right?
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God's not something we can play around with. He's not a toy, right?
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He's not a toy. He is a consuming fire. And like we looked at last week, he will discipline you and death is not the worst thing that can happen to you.
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Death is not the worst thing that can happen to you. You don't play around with God. Yes, we have grace.
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Yes, we have mercy, but don't take him for granted. He's not a toy. Again, last week, we looked at this discipline of God and we saw that his discipline wasn't a bad thing.
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We have not come to a mountain that can be touched. We have come to the mountain where we receive grace, not punishment that we deserve.
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And it's all because of what Jesus has done. Just to reiterate the gospel, we have, we just like the
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Jews, every one of us are placed on these two mountains.
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One mountain is judgment, one mountain is grace, right? Those who have received
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Jesus Christ, who have turned in repentance to God by looking to the son, Jesus Christ, who are running this race focused on Christ, we have grace and mercy.
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Those who have not received Christ, who do not trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, they are on Mount Sinai.
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And though they don't know it, they are trembling with fear. What I'm saying, we don't wanna hear what
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God has to say. You Christians, y 'all go talk to God. We'll stay over here. They don't wanna hear the words of God.
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They don't wanna hear the voice of God. They tremble with fear. And what we're trying to do is to tell them that that's not the mountain.
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You can't approach God on that mountain. God can only be approached through Jesus Christ. And so what we have to do is preach the gospel that we broke
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God's law. God has paid our fine by sending his son, Jesus Christ, to take our punishment. I'm available to anyone who wants to talk.
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Pastor Cal as well, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.
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We thank you that we are gathered together as your people. And Lord, that you are gracious to us.
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We pray that for the rest of our time here today,
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Lord, that you will remain gracious and that you will bless our fellowship. Lord, right now,
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I pray over your people as they partake in the Lord's Supper, that you are preparing them to partake.
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Lord, we know that even this is not something to play with, but it is for those who are
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Christians, those who look to you, those who are running the race, looking to Jesus Christ.
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So I pray that each one is searching their souls to know if they are right with you by faith alone in Jesus Christ.
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We pray over the Supper that you bless it and that you will use it to grow us in greater holiness.