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[Hebrews 12:25-29]
I don't know if you remember what a bulletin is. I remember we used to have bulletins and they would give a little update on what would be the order of service and some announcements.
On our bulletin, Bethlehem Bible Church bulletin, Pradeep has one back there, there's a
Bible verse or two and it epitomizes and summarizes what we want to do here at Bethlehem Bible Church.
As a matter of fact, it is essentially my modus operandi, what
I do, why I exist, why I was born. And it's Colossians chapter 1 verses 28 and 29.
And it reads simply, him we proclaim, we constantly proclaim, we're always proclaiming
Jesus, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
For every pastor, for every preacher, for every Bible teacher, this should be the theme. This is that verse that should resonate in our minds and our hearts as we think about what do we do?
Who should be the focus of our sermon? How do we go about preaching? Whom do we preach?
And of course, we want to talk about the Lord Jesus. Remember with Peter and Jesus after Jesus' resurrection, they were having breakfast and Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?
He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs.
The second time he was asked of Simon, do you love me, Simon son of John, do you love me?
He said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. And then the third time, feed my sheep.
It is the privilege, it is a prerogative, it is the responsibility of a pastor to proclaim who
Jesus is to the sheep. But we also know that there are unbelievers who listen, who attend.
Our main thrust is to talk about the Lord Jesus, encourage people, edify them, build them up.
But we also know that unbelievers are present and they listen, or they watch, and they also need to learn about Jesus so that they can repent and so they can trust in him.
I can't tell who's a sheep, a believer, and who's a goat, who's an unbeliever. So I just proclaim the truth and I let
God sort things out. And matter of fact, he will sort that out. Jesus said in the final judgment,
Matthew 25, when the son of man comes in glory and all his angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
Before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
The pastor preaches and he knows there's going to be believers there and unbelievers. And he lets the
Lord sort those things out. And by the way, if you get that concept, you can understand the book of Hebrews.
If you have your Bibles, let's turn to Hebrews chapter 12. This is a sermon preached by a pastor and he knows that there are both unbelievers listening slash reading and believers listening slash reading.
If you understand that when a pastor preaches, he number one wants to proclaim things to the glory of God.
If God is happy and no one else is, the pastor is satisfied. But from the human perspective, the horizontal perspective, he's preaching in such a way that he's focusing on the believers, but he understands that occasionally he has to give warnings to the unbelievers there.
Regularly you'll hear me say, dear Christian, God has forgiven you. He's justified you. There's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
And then you'll hear me say, but if you're an unbeliever here today, you need to repent.
You need to turn from your sins and trust in the Lord Jesus. Hell is real. Eternity is real.
And by the way, that kind of preaching is the sermon we have in Hebrews where he'll talk about the grace of God, communion with God, the excellencies of Christ Jesus.
But he puts some warnings in there. So if you're tempted to turn and go back to your old life, to Judaism in this particular case, you will have a warning.
So there are five warnings in this book of Hebrews, and we come to the final warning today of this pastor with the pastor's heart, of course, especially here inspired by the
Holy Spirit. And he wants to tell people, Jesus is enough. Jesus is better. Jesus is superior.
Don't fall for anything less than Jesus Christ, the risen Savior. But by the way, there's some warnings if you want to play around and mess around and turn your back on Jesus.
There is a dire future for you.
And so let me read Hebrews chapter 12, verses 25 through 29, our final warning passage.
And I think if you understand that this is a sermon, you understand that there are people listening that are professing
Jesus, possessing Jesus, wanting to turn their back on Jesus. If you understand it's a mixed audience, you'll get this.
Hebrews chapter 12, verses 25 through 29. See to it 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. There's two kinds of faith.
A faith that's saved, authentic faith, and a faith that doesn't save. It just makes a proclamation.
It's a spurious faith. It's a false faith. It's a fake faith. And this preacher here in this book is preaching many things about the authentic faith and how you can rest in the
Lord Jesus. And as prayed by Pradeep, you can come boldly to the throne of grace. You've got the intercessor in chapter seven, where Jesus, as the priest, not only is the sacrifice, but also what do priests do?
He prays. And so, dear Christian, in Hebrews chapter 10, please come with boldness and with confidence, and you can rest assured that if you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. The book is not meant to take away assurance from believers at all.
He says in chapter two of Hebrews, for it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Jesus is going to take every one of his children, and he's going to bring them home no matter what. He's the author and also the perfecter or finisher.
His once for all perfect sacrifice is all you need to stand before a thrice holy
God. So why does he say in chapter two, warning? Chapter three and four, warning?
Chapter six, warning. Chapter 10, warning. And now chapter 12 here, warning.
He wants the people to understand that if you aren't going to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in him, the warning to go back to a work system, to go back to the temple, to go back to unbelief is tragic.
Don't do it. You can't go back. Now that we have Jesus, the final revelation, what are you going to do?
You say to yourself, well, I don't really think he was the Messiah. Maybe he'll, he'll, somebody else will come.
He'll be the first Messiah to come. Apostasy has consequences, but I want to stress one last time that when you read the book of Hebrews, dear
Christian, don't take isolated warning passages and construct a doctrine where you have no assurance.
You have no security where you're just intimidated and always frightened. Remember, Jesus's death was twofold.
His life was twofold. You get standing before God and when you get standing before God, immediately you get a sanctifying process.
What God justifies, he sanctifies. And if you read the book of Hebrews, if I do these things,
I'm not going to be cast out. You read it wrongly, Christian. If you read it as if you say to yourself,
I'm going to do these things because he saved me, you've read it rightly. If I do these things,
God will keep me in position. God will not cast me out. That's not a way a Christian should read Hebrews.
But if you read it by saying, this is what God has done for me. His benevolence, his grace has so done this for me in the
Lord Jesus Christ. I like to obey because of. It makes all the difference in the world. Don't undermine the finished work of Christ.
Now, we come to a warning passage and you say, is this warning passage have any teeth for the Christian? Well, some of the teeth that it has for the
Christian is simply, remember what you've been delivered from? Remember, this would have been you if it wasn't the
Lord Jesus Christ intercepting you, being your advocate, being your mediator. This threatening of warning of the law, what does it remind you of?
I have been delivered and I can live for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, remember what he has said just prior to this passage.
He gives a good little contrast, does he not? In verses 18 and following,
I just want to read that to make sure we're all set for context, then we'll get into the passage. Remember the law mountain,
Sion, Sinai, I put the two words together. What do you get if you have
Sinai and Zion and you mix them together? Sinai. Okay, two mountains,
Sinai and Zion. I guess if you're German and you look at Ss, you could pronounce them with Zs.
Nonetheless, verse 18, for you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and tempest.
Remember, all language that talks about the presence of God. You want to approach God? He's inapproachable through law -keeping.
You can't get there through law -keeping. And the sound of a trumpet and the voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken of them, fingers in the ears saying, you know, la, la, la,
I don't want to hear this anymore because it's doom and destruction and death, I can't obey. They couldn't even endure the order that was given to them.
Even if a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said,
I tremble with fear. Why would you go back to that? Why would you say, you know what? I don't want
Jesus, his perfect law -keeping. I think I'll settle with, I'll be okay myself.
And by the way, this is every religion. Every religion except for Christianity is
Hebrews 12, verses 18 through 21. We'll do things. The golden rule, we'll obey, we'll be nice, we'll have certain offerings, we'll pray five times a day, and that is a religion that damns.
Why? Because you can't obey. It's not meant to have you have access to God through obedience.
It's meant to show you, you can't get to God through obedience, so trust in someone who freely offers salvation and who has obeyed in your place.
That is the risen Savior, the Lord Jesus. Sinai can't deal with sin. Sinai judges.
Sinai exposes sin. But then there's another mountain, and this is only Christianity, and this is
Mount Zion. And look at what's around Mount Zion. The contrast is so obvious.
Instead of doom and gloom, you've come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living
God, heavenly Jerusalem. Oh, the wonder of what that must be like, innumerable angels in festal gathering.
That is to say, they're no longer delivering the law, they're praising God and inviting you to come and praise the
Lord Jesus with them and to the assembly or the church or the gathering of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.
Their names are written in heaven. And to God, the judge of all, he's not going to judge you, Christian.
He's already judged you in Christ Jesus. He's going to avenge all those who are persecuting you. 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 able.
Instead of cursing, that word speaks blessing. That word speaks, blessed are the dead who die in the
Lord. That speaks forgiveness, full and free. John Newton said, Jesus has hushed the loud thunder.
He has quenched Mount Zion's flame. So we come to our passage today, and it's pretty simple.
The simple commands are, don't refuse him.
That is, see to it that you don't refuse him. Be grateful and offer worship.
So those are really the three markers today in response to the Lord Jesus. Don't refuse
God who's speaking. Make sure you're thankful and make sure you offer worship. So that's my outline today.
Let's just take a look at this serious warning. Number one, don't refuse God's word. It says it in verse 25.
See to it, that's where we get the word to see, literally, blepo, blepoplasty.
It has to do with looking at something but examining carefully. See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking.
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.
Okay, think about it. This is very fascinating. Now, you're thinking like a Jewish person, book of Hebrews. Moses talked.
God's talked through Moses, right? Moses gave the proclamation. And when
Moses talked and you disobeyed, were there consequences? Well, the answer is yes.
Do you think there'll be less consequences or more consequences when Jesus talks and you disobey him?
If Moses preached and there were consequences to disobedience, do you think the final revelation,
Jesus himself, who's better than Moses, chapter 3, Moses was a servant,
Jesus was a son. Do you think it's going to be better for you to disobey Jesus, the final revelation, or Moses?
And this writer is going to say, this is obvious. If Moses had consequences to his disobedience, what about Jesus?
Remember Hebrews chapter 1? I'll just read you a few verses. And think about the final revelation of God in Christ Jesus.
Long ago at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his what?
His son, whom he appointed heir of all things. He created the world. He's the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature.
He upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
Do you want to disobey him? Do you want to say, I don't care what he says? He's your creator. He's the only savior.
And so if you disobey Moses, there's earthly hell to pay. You disobey Jesus, there's eternal hell to pay.
So pay attention. This is no game. Do you have a greater obligation to obey
Moses or Jesus? And you say, well, Moses' words were from God. That's true. But as we add things up, this is his son, his beloved son.
And when he speaks, you ought to see to it that you don't have an unbelieving heart.
That's what Hebrews 3 .12 says, see to it, same language, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living
God. Don't just kind of meander through life and, you know, I'll deal with that when I'm older or, you know what, when
I get to obey, I will. No. You don't refuse to hear
God's word. I always think it's fascinating. Idols back in those days, you could see them, but they couldn't talk, right?
They don't talk. But God, you can't see, yet he talks. So don't refuse his words.
It's Jeremiah 11, those who refuse my words. Ezekiel 5, rebelled against my ordinances, reject my ordinances.
Zechariah 7, they refuse to pay attention. So for your soul's sake, you need to be believing and not just saying, well, you know, it's no big deal.
Yes, it's a big deal because if Jesus' final revelation is true, and it is, you're in big trouble if you say, well,
I don't care. And by the way, this is a very important truth that we need to settle into our minds.
There's no middle ground. You either accept the words of Jesus and trust him, or you reject him.
Well, I kind of will just kind of like split the middle, no middle ground. You either are for Jesus or against him.
You're either believing or you're not. This is binary. It's on -off. Well, you know, I kind of throw God a bone every once in a while and kind of split the middle.
Also, I think it should be very interesting, you should not say to yourself, you know, the Old Testament, Moses, his
God, wrath, fire, brimstone. Jesus, he's all love. He's like a grandpa.
He doesn't care what you do. He just, you know, has one attribute, and it's love or benevolence. When Jesus returns, 2
Thessalonians says, from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know
God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, these will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the
Lord and from the glory of his might. This is important. The writer is essentially saying, as he's preaching, eternity is right now.
It counts. Trust, don't wait, don't delay, don't refuse. You say, I'll deal with this later.
That's like stiff -arming God. That's like rejecting him. I don't want to think about it now. I'll deal with it another time.
How many Israelites were slain in the wilderness because they disobeyed
Moses? Do you think you're going to be better off or worse off when you say, I'm going to disobey Jesus?
Numbers says, the book of Numbers 14, say to them as I live, declares the
Lord, which you have said in my hearing, I will do to you. Your dead body shall fall in this wilderness, and all your number listed in the census from 20 years old and upward who have grumbled against me.
Not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would dwell with you, except Caleb and Joshua.
Don't turn your heart away, believe. He's warning these Jews who are sitting there and they're thinking, you know what?
I don't believe any of this. And he says, believe. He's warning these Jews who are sitting there, who are receiving this letter sermon, you know what?
I kind of believe, but I kind of really want to go back. And so I want to believe by name, but not really by profession.
I can say it this way, don't be a Judas. Don't be a Pharaoh. Believe and live.
So how much more argument? It's a rhetorical question. You know the answer. How important is it to listen to God's word, verse 26?
It's so important because things shake. This is interesting. Shake and shook are very often repeated in this section.
At that time, his voice shook the earth, but now he's promised, I'll shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.
There's going to be a dramatic shaking going on in the future. The world is going to end.
So why would you just kind of like, well, I'll just deal with this later. There's going to be a later when it's too late for your later.
This is right from Haggai chapter 2, verses 6 through 8. Do you know there's a book in the
Bible called Haggai or Haggai? When's the last time you read it? Well, I don't read it that often either, but I've read these verses several times this week that this writer is referring to.
And it makes sense when you're an Old Testament scholar and the only Bible they had is the Old Testament, he's referring to the
Old Testament, to the Hebrews. Here's Haggai 2, 6, 7, and 8, for thus says the Lord of hosts.
Yet once more in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.
I will shake all nations so that the treasures of all the nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the
Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. What's he doing here, this author in Hebrews?
Jesus is going to come back and everything's going to be undone. Happy Earth Day, right?
Everything's just going to be done. Climate change is a truth, maybe not a truth now, but will be eventually.
Sinai, true or false, was shaking. I told myself I was not going to say there's a whole lot of shaking going on, but why is he
Charlie? I have to do it. Exodus 19, Sinai was in smoke because the
Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.
For Moses, the words quaking locally. For Jesus, there's just more shaking.
The entire realm of the universe is going to shake. It was 1994,
Kim and I were married, I don't know how long were we married, five years. Haley was pretty little, and it was 4 .30
in the morning, January 17th. We were in our North Hollywood home. And by the time
I figured out what was going on and got outside, got my clothes on and stuff, Kim was already standing in the middle of the street with Haley, kind of like, well, waiting for me, where are you?
That house was rocking and shaking back and forth. I did a little research. It was called a blind thrust earthquake.
The quake duration was approximately 10 to 20 seconds. Its peak ground acceleration of 1 .8
G, I don't know what that is, was the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America.
You could feel it 220 miles away in Las Vegas. And the receiving station noticed the peak ground velocity was 183 centimeters slash
S. I don't know what slash the S is. Four miles an hour, they said.
Fastest ever recorded, two major aftershocks. Fifty -seven dead, 8 ,700 people hurt, $50 million of property damage.
That was impressive. I didn't want to learn, live through it again. But there's a huge earthquake coming, heavens shaking, not earth.
Where's the fault line in heaven? I have no idea. But there's going to be a shaking, a judicial shaking, a divine shaking.
I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the Lord predicted in Haggai. It's the second coming of the
Lord Jesus. So why would we put things off? Listen to what Matthew 24 says. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the
Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send out
His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds from one end of the heaven to the other.
So you'd better be resting in Jesus. You better see to it that you don't say, I'll believe another day.
I'll take care of my fake faith another day. How about Peter when he says, since all these things are thus to be dissolved, the heavens, the earth, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolve, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they are burnt, but according to His promise, we are waiting for the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells.
God keeps His promises. Haggai says, there's going to be shaking going on, so see to it that you obey
God's word, even in Hebrews chapter 1, in verses 10 and following, it talks about the skies will be rolled up like a mantle, and the garments, they'll also be changed.
It makes me think of a song though for the Christian, how firm a foundation, ye saints of the
Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent word. What more can He say than to you
He has said, unto the Savior for refuge, Jesus have fled. Then the writer does something interesting here in Hebrews 27.
He gives some inspired comments on the Old Testament Haggai passage. So he adds, by the ministry of the
Holy Spirit, he talks something more about this shaking. What does he say? Verse 27, this phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is, things that have been made in order that things that cannot be shaken may remain.
Some things are going to shake, they're created, they're going to be temporal, they're going to decay, but there's something that doesn't decay, there's something that doesn't cease, there's something that doesn't get old, there's something that is eternal.
And this is the kingdom of God because Jesus the King is eternal. Kind of like this little commentary on the
Old Testament. Of course, the most reliable interpreter of all the
Bible, of course, is the Holy Spirit. There's going to be trembling of heavens, shaking at the fury of the
Lord of hosts, Isaiah 13, but there's something that's not going to be shaken. Side note,
Christian, don't fall for the lie that everything in this world is what you can taste and touch and feel and hold.
There are other realities that are true. You say, well, you know what? It's hard,
I know, but we walk by faith and not by sight. These things are true. The Lord has told us these things are true.
The writer is saying, don't disobey, don't have unbelief. Creation is transitory.
Eternal life, the kingdom of heaven lasts forever. Where do you want to put your investment? By faith.
There's some things that aren't going to be shaken. So how do we respond to this? Number one, which is point two on my outline, but the response to all this for the
Christian certainly is to be grateful. You see that in verse 28? Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
No matter how much catastrophic shaking happens with this earth and the heavens, the kingdom is not going to be shaken.
So be thankful. I just watch what's going on in evangelicalism now and in the world.
And could you kind of like say the last three months as I watch people, the number one thing
I think about in the midst of this crisis is people seem extra thankful. People seem more grateful.
Well, maybe that's true, but I haven't seen it. I don't think that's been my response always.
To be grateful, can you imagine? You deserve to be on the receiving end of the judge, the
Lord Jesus, who is the judge, jury, and executioner. And he's going to come back the second time.
Not as a baby, but to come back in wrath and vengeance for the unbelievers. And for the believers, he's going to take them to himself.
And while we, while I deserve all this punishment, I don't get any of it. What's my response?
Well, you know what? I don't like the weather today. I don't like what the governor did today. I don't like what this happened today.
I can so easily default to just grumbling, and complaining, and having that bitter kind of spirit that Esau was known for.
So he says, you know what? In light of all this stuff, in light of these truths, in light of who Jesus is, be grateful.
Be grateful. When's the last time you said, Lord, thank you for my salvation? Thank you for what you've done for me.
What I've earned, and what I've deserved, and what you've given me. When you receive the gospel, and you come to the city of Zion, the heavenly
Jerusalem, the church of the firstborn, what's your response? Well, it's to be thankful.
Literally, the translation is, let us have grace. Because lots of times, the word grace is this idiom for to be thankful.
I mean, even when we say in Spanish, I've been told by my family, I'm not supposed to pronounce
Spanish words because I don't get the accent right. But I can at least say gracias, right?
Gracias. My wife would always say, when I want to know what time it is in Spanish, it's que horas, right?
No, there's no accent at all. But even the word gracias, to thank you, thank you,
Lord, for what you've done. In light of who Jesus is, chapters 1 through 12, and we don't have to experience this rumbling and this judgment, be thankful.
Live a life of thankfulness. Thank you. I remember I'd pick up some of Luke's buddies when he was younger, and we'd take him to the skate park, and I'd drop the kid off at his house.
So Luke would be with me, they're 12 years old, skate park, and I'd drop the kid off at the house. And I was always told by my dad, it's just so simple, just say thank you.
You know, you get a ticket from a policeman, and you just want to feel like you want to say thank you. It's just like this reflex. So I remember
I'd always say to this one particular kid that lived down the street, he'd never say thank you. So as he would get out of the car,
I would just say, thank you. Just thank you. You've received a kingdom that will not pass away.
You didn't earn any of it. You earned demerits, and he gave you favor. So how do you respond?
With thankfulness. You've received everything. What did you earn? Nothing. So be thankful.
Gratitude. I mean, should not our hearts just jump for joy, thinking we get heaven?
The Lord Jesus, he's saved me. He's redeemed me. He's forgiven me. There's no condemnation.
All this stuff is going to be dissolved, but I don't have to worry. I can respond with faith. No wonder so many reformers said, a good synonym for faith is just receive.
Rest. Because it means we didn't contribute anything. We've just received it all. Be grateful for a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
And by the way, the text says, let us have its present tense. Let's just have a lifestyle of thankfulness.
True or false? It's God's will for you to be thankful. It's true.
How about 1 Thessalonians 5 .18? In everything, give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
You just read the Psalms, and you think, you know what? That's good for my soul, because I need to learn how to be more thankful.
This is the paradigm of Romans. Guilt, grace, gratitude. That's the paradigm that the reformers understood.
We're so guilty, but the grace in Christ Jesus is greater than all of our sins and trespasses and iniquities.
I mean, think about it. What have your iniquities earned? What have your perversities earned? What have your lust earned, just sensual lust, appetites?
What have they all earned? Except we didn't get any of that, because Jesus stepped in and intercepted those, because he loves sinners.
You watch Jesus with the leper. You watch Jesus with Zacchaeus. You watch Jesus with the woman at the well.
You watch Jesus, how he deals with sinful people like us, and you think, you know what? I'm thankful.
I had to offer Psalm 50, a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Psalm 107, let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving.
One of the things I've noticed in the world that has nothing to do with thanksgiving is dirty sex talk.
You say, what does that have to do with anything? Where did you get that? Listen to what Ephesians 5 says, but do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you as is proper among saints.
And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather...
So, instead of all this kind of like sexual innuendo talk and everything that's all sex talk,
I'm not talking about a married couple, I'm talking about everything outside of that. It says, they're not fitting, but rather give thanks.
Because all this unwholesome talk is all self, self, self, self. What's the opposite of self?
Praise, thanksgiving. That's fitting, that's proper. It is good to give thanks to your name,
O Lord, for you are good. When's the last time you said, you know what,
Lord? Please forgive me for my bitterness, my complaining, my ungratefulness. I can find things to complain about at church, with church people, with church leadership, with governments, with government leaders, with other people, with neighbors, with my spouse, with my kids, with my parents, with everything else.
Do you know what? I know what I deserve and I know what I get and thank you. I'm sorry, please forgive me.
I ought to be thankful. You look at the Lord Jesus' life and you just see thankfulness incarnate.
Gerhard Frost said, let us give thanks for someone to thank. I always think about that during Thanksgiving.
Who are these people thanking? We would have been them, except we know who to thank now.
Say, well, you know what? My life doesn't measure up. Other people do better off than I do and I've lost my job and I've got this diagnosis and you know what?
Things just don't measure up for me and I get the short end of the stick. I know that you think that sometimes,
I know that you say that sometimes, but as it comes out of my mouth, I don't want to be that person. I want to say, Lord, I just want to thank you.
Thank you for what you've done. Thank you, oh, my father, for giving us your son. So, the response of the
Christian is to be thankful, to keep trusting. I know things are bad. I know the persecution is coming. You think about this local text here at the book of Hebrews, but I'm just going to be thankful.
He's telling people who are losing their houses. He's telling people who are going to jail to be thankful.
Keep trusting. But also, he says something else. Don't refuse God's word. Be thankful and offer acceptable worship.
Do you see it? Verse 28, let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our
God is a consuming fire. It's almost like they're connected, thankfulness and worship.
Kind of almost one leads into the other, does it not? How do we worship?
How do we come to God and worship? I'll tell you how we don't do it. Kind of lick your finger, put it up in the winds of pop culture, and how do unbelievers praise
God and praise, sing and praise and all that? I think we should do it that way too.
If you look at this passage, for our God is a consuming fire. By the way, that's not the Old Testament God.
Our God is a consuming fire. There's something about the holiness of God that should affect the way we worship.
If there's never a factor into God is holy, and yes, I'm his son or daughter, and yes,
I can stand before him with the obedience of Christ Jesus credited to my account. I can stand before him forgiven all my sins credited to Jesus' account, but I still stand before him as a thrice holy
God, then something's wrong if we don't think that way. We ought to think that way. It's not, well,
I'm forgiven, God's holy, it doesn't matter. No, no, I'm forgiven, God's holy. Give worship that's commensurate with his holiness.
Ask Nadab and Abihu who just kind of walked into the presence of God, not factoring in that God requires holy worship.
He's a consuming fire. It's acceptable worship. That tells me there's a kind of worship that's not acceptable.
Any kind of worship that says, you know what, I worship God not through Jesus Christ, of course, is unacceptable.
And some of these Jews wanted to do that very thing. There's the temple, there's the gold, there's the marble, there's the incense, there's just no
Messiah. John Owen said, worship is performed in heaven.
Remember all those angels and festal gathering? Though they who perform it are on earth, yet they do it by faith in heaven.
That's so insane there. It's interesting because if you go back to chapter 12, verse 22, but you have come to Mount Zion, it's like this worship where you're kind of like, well, you're still here on earth, not kind of like you are, but you're in heaven worshiping with them.
You will eventually get there. There's this, I'm already there, I'm not yet there, but still, my worship is informed by what's going on in heaven.
That's the point. Everything else is going to be dissolved, so how can I worship God? How can
I think rightly? Jeremiah Burroughs said, true fear and trembling at the word is that which will settle the heart and strengthen the heart against all fears.
The more fear there is of God's word, the less fear there will be of any other creature. It is the only way to free you from all fears whatsoever.
So we're not the ones who refuse when God is speaking. We understand that there's this right kind of fear.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So in light of that, now everything stems from that, our thankfulness, our worship, how we think about issues.
We have to be careful how to worship, to give thanks, sacrifices, and worship in accordance with the person of God.
Spurgeon, let us not think that we are not to be reverent because we gather at the gospel call. Let us not dream that God, who is a consuming fire on the top of Sinai, is less terrible under the gospel than under the law, for it is not so.
The God who gave the law at Sinai has never changed. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the God of Moses, who overthrew
Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, and slew Korah, Dathan, and Abraham, and the multitudes of murderers, and murmurers, and idolaters, and fornicators.
This is our God forever and ever. So since he's so holy, we don't have to cower because we're sinful people, we're children, but we want to make sure we offer our worship with reverence.
What the text says there, reverence, our piety, or doing the right thing, and with awe, for our
God is a consuming fire. That's right out of Deuteronomy 4, for the
Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. What else do
I notice when I look at this text? He says, don't refuse those who are speaking, verse 25. Now he's talking about acceptable worship.
Can there be any acceptable worship that's not guided by the word of God, directed by the word of God, done in accordance with the word of God?
The answer is no, no, and no. That's why this word of God, as the scholars would say, should regulate what we do.
People say, well, you know what? I like drama. That's what I like. I do too.
That's why I read the Bible because could there be anything more dramatic in the world? Say, no, no, I want drama up on the platform and acting and stuff like that.
Why don't we do that? There's not a Bible verse that says to do it. What about, I guess,
I could talk about this a long time. It's simple though, dear
Christian, we have the Bible that regulates our worship. And so what does the Bible say?
The Bible says, preach a sermon about Jesus, read Scripture, 1 Timothy 4, sing to one another with songs and hymns and spiritual songs, celebrate the
Lord's Supper. This is God's work for us, outside of us. We're His children. Baptism.
So we do those things. Is there anything wrong with drama? Well, if you want to have a drama on a
Sunday night or a strike Sunday night, I didn't mean to say that, I meant Wednesday night.
We just want to make sure we honor God. He saved us. So when He tells us, this is how
I'd like to be worshipped, this is what we want to do. We want to honor Him with that. And I think that stems also from a heart that's full of thanks.
You, Christian, receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. I think you know that when you pray the Lord's prayer that the
Lord taught us to pray, when He talks about, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. When you realize who
God is and what He's called you to do, that should motivate you to live the Christian life. That should motivate you to say, you know what?
I want to be thankful. I want to worship properly. It drives you to say to yourself, you know what?
I have to still be careful because He's a God who is my father, yes, but a holy father.
I'm thinking of the verse in 1 Peter 2, I believe, or maybe chapter 1.
I just think about some of my preaching students and I tell them, you need to bring your Bibles up to the pulpit.
Number one, so people think you're preaching from the Bible, even if you have an iPad. And number two, if you think of a verse in the middle of your sermon, you have some place to go.
And so I'm thinking about a passage here in 1 Peter chapter 1. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy.
And if you call on Him as Father who impartially judges each according to His deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile.
Well, He's my father, but I still have to give Him awe and reverence and say, you know what? He's different.
He's not some kind of my buddy God upstairs or the big guy or my pal. No, with reverence and awe.
It doesn't say cringing. It doesn't say groveling. It doesn't say, you know, you sinned one time and therefore you're out.
It says with reverence and with awe. You've come to the right mountain. You've come to Mount Zion.
You've come to the right city, the heavenly Jerusalem. So run well, guilt, grace, and gospel.
No, it's guilt, grace, and gratitude because of the gospel. And the gospel isn't a thing.
The gospel is a person. So how do we respond? Well, we see
God's word and we want to heed God's word. Say, I don't do it perfectly, but I want to heed God's word. Who gave you that desire?
Of course, the Lord did, the Holy Spirit. I like to say, did Satan give you that desire to heed God's word?
Did Satan give you a desire to be thankful? Did Satan give you a desire to worship God properly?
Of course, he didn't. Did CNN give you that desire? Did the world give you that desire? Did your own flesh give you that desire?
No, you were given these desires by God. And so we don't want to turn our back on his word. We want to keep believing and we want to offer thankful worship to the
Lord. How does that happen?
It happens by a verse in the Bible that's regularly preached that the book of Hebrews modeled, him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
And by the way, dads, moms, Bible teachers, Sunday school teachers, this is your model as well.
Let's pray. I thank you, Father, for your word. I thank you for these warnings. I pray that those who are listening today that are simply professors would heed the warning and believe.
I pray, Father, for us as Christians, we look at these warnings and we think, thank you, Father, we're not in that camp anymore.
You've saved us, you've delivered us, so we want to honor you now. We don't want to go back. You've used these warnings to help us to move forward and to press us forward.
Help us to be thankful no matter what happens in the weeks to come and the months to come. Help us to worship you properly because the
Lord Jesus deserves it. He is the one. He is the light of life.
He is the one who was born of the Virgin Mary. He's the one that suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, and he is going to come back because he's ascended.