Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
172.
Teach us more, abide less ways, Thou holy Lamb of God, fixed and rudest in Thy grace as both my blood.
172.
Oh he, he starts more.
By his iron flame.
And I want to kill you. And he's crap.
I'm seeing the lighting praise.
And blah blah blah blah.
God and Father, we thankfully we've been called to eternal glory through Christ Jesus our Lord, and now we are all here before thee to tears without Mass for us to be.
Doors and followers of library with on our needs of thyself. We are dependent. We feel this and we thank you for this privilege. Now to consider.
With all my heart for her personal age, so we asked at what is considered this much power would be a help to us a little while we're left here. We asked in the name and for their glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Would it be OK to continue with the rest of Hebrews 12 Then?
Would verse 18 be about right?
Seafood 12, verse 18.
For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire neuron to blackness, and darkness, and Tempest.
00:05:06
And the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which voice say that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.
Or they could not endure that which was commanded.
And there's so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust, thrust through with the dark.
And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake.
But ye are common to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels.
Through the General Assembly and Church of the first born, which are written in heaven, And to God the Judge of all, and to the Spirit of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
See that you refuse, not him the speaketh.
First they escaped not who refused him that fake on earth much more Shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven?
Whose voice then shook the earth.
But now he has promised, saying yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
And this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Wherefore we, receiving a Kingdom which cannot be removed, be moved. Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
For our God is a consuming fire.
Early in an earlier meeting you gave us 3 examples where law and grace are brought together in Hebrews.
Did you give them to us again? I know you mentioned them last night to me and uh, I think it'd be good to bring him out again if you would, umm, the first one that I did in Hebrews chapter 2.
It says forth the word spoken by Angel was set back, and every transgression and disobedience received the just recompense of reward. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
Which had at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
God also bearing witness, both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles, etcetera.
And then in.
Stop.
Chapter 10.
28.
He despised Moses law.
Died without mercy under two or three witnesses.
Of how much sore punishment suppose you, shall he be thought worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done death by?
For we know him that hath said, vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord, And again the Lord shall judge his people. And then the last one we have read from verse 18 of chapter 12.
And that was the law given in all of its purity, wasn't it? It was not the law, which was later mingled with mercy and forgiveness, but the law and all of its.
Straighten.
And then we have.
00:10:03
Mount Fiona, the city which he loved.
As exemplifying his rate, but I have a question regarding it.
That is in the 24th verse. And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that seeketh better things than that of Abel.
I wonder why that was not put at the head of the list.
It's much like in Peter.
Umm, can't post it first right now, but.
It it speaks to.
The blood of sprinkling is the last in the line too. Oh, the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
But there I think it's because of the work of.
God in our souls.
'Cause us to be obedient and.
With a blood meeting our need.
So I have that question.
Well, I don't have an immediate answer or any maybe someone else does.
The only thing that comes to mind is that of course the blood of Christ is the basis for everything and whether it's heavenly blessing, which is perhaps what is what is the dwelt on more in.
Verses 22 and 23, or whether it's the new covenant that eventually will be proclaimed to Israel, all of it rests on the finished work of Christ and on that precious blood.
But I don't know, maybe someone else has a comment on it.
The blood of the continent is the thing, isn't it? That goes throughout all Scripture, yes.
So here we have two mountains here at the end of the chapter, a mountain that speaks of law and a mountain that speaks of grace.
And here they're contrasted. In the Old Testament, of course, we know that Mount Sinai was the place where the law was given, and attending the giving of that law were all the demonstrations of God's holiness and power.
And I would suggest, at least in a general way, that it is given here to show that if man is going to invoke law, either as a means of being saved or as a rule of life, which is what the Galatians were doing, that man cannot. And I'm glad you brought that over. Man cannot, if we could say it this way, have a law that is diluted by mercy.
He must have it as it originally came from God. And then he faces what we have detailed here in these first few verses. He faces the entire wrath of God against sin, because even one infraction of the law makes me guilty of all.
But then when we come to the mount, Mount Zion, which of course speaks of grace, and the heavenly Jerusalem speaks of heavenly blessing which comes through Christ, then we have everything which is on the basis of grace. And so.
What happened under the law, and Israel agreed to that law, was going to be on the basis of one what man ought to be able to do.
For God. And of course, he was a complete failure.
What we have in grace is on the basis of what Christ has done. And so I believe the writer of Hebrews, again, probably Paul is through the Spirit drawing the sharp contrast here right at the end of his whole dissertation, if you like, on.
V.
Blessings and all that is ours in Christ.
Right at the end of it all, he draws with sharp contrast between what God gave at Mount Sinai and what he has now. For the believer in Christ, you know, is that, is that right or anything?
00:15:01
Do you think it's a coincidence that Exodus 21 That you read this afternoon comes immediately after Exodus 20? I just didn't have enjoyed that contrast that they're giving of the law and all of its condemnation upon man, and then the it's as though the Lord could not wait.
In picture it is set forth the servant. They would say, I love my master, my wife and my children I will not go after.
It's just too remarkable.
I must confess till I had not thought of that, but that's beautiful. Thank you.
They made themselves servants, all that the Lord had spoken when we did.
That was a terrible thing to do. They had enjoyed the grace of God from the coming out of of the land until that moment. And then they said give us a law. We'll we'll be we'll be faithful servants on the Lord knew they would be faithful service, but he is quick to pronounce there will be one that'll be a faithful service and he will fulfill all my love.
The comments on Greg so we understand what it is. Grace has not thought overlooking sin and I think that often there is confusion as to that, that grace is God being kind to man and overlooking what He is by nature. But under law God looked for righteousness in man and found none.
Under grace, God says I will do it all.
And that's why the consequences in Hebrews 10 seem so dramatic.
Because if man refuses the grace of God, if man refuses what God has done through the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no hope for him. He has shut off his only, only hope of salvation. There is nothing after that to refuse the grace of God.
Leaves a person in a hopeless situation. So God in grace doesn't overlook sin. Instead he sent his son to as we had yesterday in the meeting that our brother Bruce gave. I want to repeat that meeting, go back and listen to it again. Settle the question of sin as far as God is concerned. He addresses as far as I am as an individual is concerned when I receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. So never think of grace in the same sense as graciousness.
Grace, may and us lead to gracious behavior should, but the two are not the same and should never be confused.
Grace is not in any way compromise the righteousness of God.
In fact, God can fully display His righteousness in this present dispensation because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done on the cross. He can be righteous in justifying, declaring the sin of righteousness in, yes, declaring Him to be righteous.
Just one other completely disconnected comment on this portion. It seems a little odd when you first read it says for year not coming to the mountain that might be touched, and then it goes on to say, well, they couldn't touch it. But there are two different thoughts in Judaism. Everything was you can touch it, you could see it, you could hear it. But what the Lord has been showing them in this epistle, if there's something beyond what you can touch and what you can hear and what you can feel, there's something better, something eternal.
Something heavenly. But that mount, actually, they couldn't touch it because if they touched it, they were thrust through.
You could be touched in the in that it was no object for faith. It was real physical. That was in a bird with fire. That was all true. It was a marvelous demonstration of God and His judgment. That wasn't something that we should have sought out after.
For all of this, as we said a moment ago that attended, the giving of the law was intended to display before man the majesty, the glory, and the holiness of God.
And it did have that effect, so that, as it says further down here in verse 21, even Moses, who, if we could say it this way, was on intimate terms with God, it tells us in the Psalms that He made known His acts unto Moses, put His ways under the children of Israel, or His ways unto Moses, but His acts under the children of Israel. Sorry.
00:20:05
And so Moses was on intimate terms with the Lord, But when all of that power and glory.
And all of that majesty were manifested in physical terms. Even Roses has to say I exceedingly fear and quaint. Why? Because Moses too had a sinful heart and he knew it. And that law being given showed man what he was, if we could say it reverently, what he was up against, if he was going to keep the law that God would give. And so when?
That law was given, it stands in its pure form, and man that says I will do something to earn my salvation is brought right back to that pure form of the law which could not be altered, could not be changed.
Now of course we know that man in the flesh can't do one thing to please God, but at the same time, this was something that was going to demonstrate clearly to men what he really was and what he was not capable of.
Just another comment I like and I we all do, so this is not a criticism in any way, but I'd like to establish things from the word of God. So why does science speak of Greeks? Is that just something that we came up with because it fits? The answer is no. If you look in Psalm 78 in verses 6C7 and 68 says. Moreover he refused to Tabernacle Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose.
Tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which he loved, His sovereign choice that he picked Mount Zion.
Wasn't anything from man's thought that merited God's favor towards that location. It was God's sovereign choice that he chose that location.
With your saying, Nick, that it was after Israel had signally very thing that that law said the people that failed the priesthood had failed the king that they desired had failed.
All had failed, and then God brings his man on the scene in the person with David, whom we know of course is a type of Christ. And as you say, it was God's choice to pick that place, Mount Zion, as the place of his throne.
There's no record, and I stand corrected on this, that Saul ever sat there and reigned. No, Saul didn't go there. He was elsewhere. But that's where God had placed his kingly throne, put his king on the throne, who of course we know is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ who will one day fill that throne in reality. And so Mount Zion is a type of the sovereign grace of God.
And of course here it says Mount Zion, and under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
Israel was used to an earthly Jerusalem, and of course, geographically Mount Zion was part of an earthly Jerusalem, but it speaks of that which is heavenly. And that's what you and I are looking for. That's what these Jewish believers were able to look for. Everything that they had down here was in the process of being destroyed. And later on, not too long after this book was written, we know that the Lord allowed the Roman general of Titus to come in and.
He didn't entirely destroy the city of Jerusalem, but he took captive many of the Jews there, massacred many others.
The temple was destroyed, although Titus didn't want it to be, but the Lord had said it would, and it was destroyed, and everything that Israel had is an earthly center was gone. And later on, among other Roman emperors, that city was so completely destroyed.
That it was actually broken down, as they did in those days. It was plowed right over, as if forget that there ever was a city here. And when it was rebuilt again, it was rebuilt not by Jews, but by Muslims.
And so the Lord allowed all of that to pass away, but in order that those who had come to Christ would realize that their portion was knocked down. Here it was that heavenly Jerusalem.
00:25:07
And then the wisdom of God. He allowed the first thing to play out, as it were.
1St that which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual, which is a different line of things, but the principle is very broad. And so we man says all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And so off they go with a sad history of trying to earn God's favor by performance. And as you point out, in summary, after failure, after failure, after failure, then God comes in in grace and doesn't restore or.
Patch up or fix the thing that was broken brings something in far more glorious. And 2nd Corinthians 3, the apostle Paul compares the law in its in its majesty, its glory. It had a glory, but there's a glory that excels. And God rejoices, as we read in the first part of Ephesians, in the riches of his grace and in the glorious grace.
It's it's close, it's integral.
With the nature, the heart, and the light of God. Grace. With grace, the wonderful grace of God.
Someone has suggested that the Lord was outside the camp three times. The first one, the law was broken. Moses pitched the tent of beating outside the camp and afar off proved that they were ungodly. The second time in Ezekiel's day, when?
The glory departed. God gave them a system that they could have sacrifices and so on that they could maintain themselves supposedly, but it proved that they were without strength and the glory departed.
In Ezekiel's day, the third time was when they took the Lord of Glory, and they crucified him outside the gate.
Glory and the card is for the first time it proved that they were enemies.
The man's ruling was progressively shown out to be what it is.
Man uses the law today.
An attempt to establish his own righteousness by fulfilling the law.
But he's a miserable failure, and I believe that God gave man opportunity.
To demonstrate or to perform, give him the law, and God as it were, is passive, and he sits back and observes what man can do, if he can do anything. So man is active under the law, God is passing, but the performance is absolutely horrendous. Man under law is a total failure.
There's nothing beautiful about what he does, and God cannot appreciate this kind of a performance. So what does he do? He pulls this.
Screen or the drapes, you might say.
On that particular performance and now he takes the stage.
And he's the one that's F. And we sit back, we're passive. We see what God.
Does for the Sinner, for you and me, through his own dear Son. And what a beautiful performance it is. And we call it grace. It's all grace, so.
And said, you know that grace makes everything of Christ and nothing of man.
And I think it was Luther that said something to the effect that law terrifies.
But great justifies.
And when you look at this mountain that we're.
Reading about here, it is a terrifying scene.
To see.
The fire and the darkness and The Tempest, and the supernatural sound of a trumpet and a voice.
And so on and so forth. It's a terrifying.
Sight.
But when you come to Zion, on the other hand, it's that which is most attractive.
00:30:03
And how wonderful that God, by His grace, brings us into a place of favor, not based on our performance, but on His performance.
It's all of God.
And I suppose, Wally, without remark that you made about grace making everything of Christ and nothing of man. That's why going back under law is so popular, isn't it?
Man likes to be put under law. Man likes to have a line to tow. Now he doesn't want to stiff a line, but he wants to be able to do something. And that's why, sad to say, so much of Christianity has ended up putting itself in one way or another back under law. Because it gives man some place, some glory to man, and ultimately, of course, takes away from the glory that is due to Christ.
And his finished work. And so it's a very, very common thing, very, very easy thing for a man to fall into, isn't it? But God will have all the glory for himself and so put ourselves under law.
Is not the answer.
Uh, I can remember once.
And this is no reflection generally on the country I was in, but I was visiting with a man in a foreign country, a dear believer in Christ, who could not get his mind around the fact that once you were saved, you were never able to be lost again. And we went at it from Scripture one way and another, until finally he was forced to admit, well, yes, what you say is according to Scripture.
But he said that doctrine may work in North America, but it will never work here.
He said. You have no idea how badly people would behave if we didn't keep them a little bit scared and a little bit afraid of consequences, so they have to be a little bit concerned about what will happen to them in order to make them behave as Christians.
Phone What a misunderstanding of grace.
What a misunderstanding, as we've said in earlier meetings, that grace is the strongest force that properly understood to keep us from turning back to sin.
And what does that doctrine do? Ultimately it gives the glory to man that says I've kept myself, whereas this other person over here, he didn't keep himself. He sends and lost his salvation. But I didn't know it all must be of grace. And as Wally has said, this.
Whole bit that we have here on Mount Zion all flows so beautifully and so nicely from the finished work of Christ.
Romans 6 is the direct answer to that. Uh, Roman 61, uh what? What shall we say then? Shall we continue? And sin that grace be may abound, God forbid. And then down in verse 15, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace, God forbid.
And then Titus 211 for the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us and denying ungodliness and worldly lust. We shouldn't have certainly righteousness. Godly in this present world, not all that teaches us that it is great.
Grace is the power for holiness in my life.
And if I try to use that old tool of law, of holding myself to a standard, it will not work. That has been shown out in in the history of when God institutionalized this concept of blessing for performance. I'd like just to make this distinction. When we say law, you know, I think as Christians we think that because we have been brought into the light of Christianity through God's word, since the work of atonement has been accomplished, the Holy Spirit set down.
Somehow we think the law has disappeared. It's still out there, it's still in place. And I see Jews when I'm on the East Coast all the time, and I ache to try and find opportunity to speak with them in their acidic garb and everything else. But there are still people, millions of people still zealous for the law as God institutionalized it with that special elect nation. But when Christians turn to the principle of law in our day, as Bill was referring to.
It's a different thing. I think we may be confused, younger people, when we talk about grace versus law in this chapter yesterday, we're taking up the Mosaic Law and that's what's before us. But the principle of God is towards me in accordance with how I perform is the principle of legality and, and, and applying that to others is legality when I hold up a certain line and I look for an external level of performance.
00:35:27
In order that certain Christian privileges will be enjoyed. And it's a backwards and an unprofitable principle of things. And so that's what we, you and I are, are are tempted to fall back into. And the Galatians really had taken it and Paul has to reprove them severely. And the fruit of it in their life wasn't that they were starting to not shave the corners of their beard and putting ribbons of blue around their garments and all these mosaical.
Requirements, I don't think obviously wasn't there, but it was the principle of law that they were adapting. And what did it result in? Indifference to one another, fighting and devouring one another, not serving one another in love, umm, etcetera, etcetera. Just you can read the, the chapters five and six of Galatians, uh, to some extent are the proof of the legal principle carried out. And again, it's different than Mosaic law, but whether we're Jews or Gentiles, we all have the tendency.
When our hearts grow cold and we lose the sense of the grace of God in our lives, we lose the power to live out that life, as Hill was saying the other day, to be turned inside out so that our wonderful standing in Christ that cannot possibly be improved is lived out practically. And that's holiness in our lives. And grace is the power and, and, and, and tool for that. The law. You can, can never make that happen. It goes the opposite direction.
Sooner or later. So can you tell us, uh, who's, how is the, uh, useful?
As a standard for the behavior of man, the law as God put it out, you know, if you, when you're a kid, I don't know if they do it today, but they, uh, for some reason when I was in school as a kid, they teach you, they, everybody seems to think you need to learn mythology and all these crazy Greek fantasies, you know, and they have all these gods with all these frailties and all these tendencies. And, you know, even as a kid before I was saved, like, what is all this stuff?
But but God doesn't leave men to that. God says, OK, here's my standard, here's the way I want you to behave. I want you to be righteous towards one another. I want you to respect me as your creator and as your God. And I want and he lays out things which are which are accordance with the nature of God. You could say this, that the law always attaches to sin.
Roman's, uh, Romans chapter 3 and verse 19, it says, now we know that what things, whoever the law says that says to them who are under the law, then here's the purpose of why it says these things, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.
That's all I'm saying. The law, umm, there's nothing wrong with the law, but the problem is that men cannot uphold it. In no way. And so God has acted in grace, and we can be so thankful for that.
Umm, but our brothers have been bringing out are mentioned in our own chapter. We read it in the previous reading meeting. It says, uh, make straight paths for your feet. We don't live a life to go for salvation. The reason why it says to make straight path to your feet here is that less that which is lame be turned out of the way and so on. It could be a testimony. It's not for our salvation. It's to be a testimony. But then there's another thing that's.
Uh, couple verses down it says, uh, without which no man shall see the Lord looking diligently if we.
Really excited the Lord in our walk here. We will fall through grace. It's absolutely certain. And so, umm, occupation with Christ has always been the answer. And, uh.
There's I listen to a meeting last week.
Given by Gordon Hay House and he talked about.
The love of Christ constrained us, he said. That's not.
It doesn't say the love of Christ can constrain us or will constrain us. It says that it does. It's a statement of fact. The love of Christ does constrain us. And he made the application if you have a magnet, you have a bunch of nails.
00:40:12
Sitting on a table over, there is still a fact to say that that magnet attracts nails. But if that magnet is not placed right next to those nails, it's not going to attract them. And so the next part of that burst which says for the love of Christ constrains it. It says for we don't judge for a Christ side full and we're all that dead.
And so if there's going to be any practical expression of Christ in our life, it's going to be because we realize that He died on the cross for us, and our hearts is going to be attracted to that precious One. It gave that loved me and gave Himself to me.
It's not, it's not simply to follow a set of rules, but it's complete faith that loved us and gave himself her up. So the law is that which really convicts at least you want to see, but there's no power in the law to save the plans from seeing. You know, it's been likened to a mirror. Now, if I don't have a mirror, I may not realize my face is dirty. I got smudges.
On my face. But if somebody gives me a mirror, I look into it. Now I see this much.
But there's no power in this mirror to do anything about this much. But that mirror is helping. It's useful, It shows me my problem. And I think that's really.
The ball is that which shows us that we got a problem and we might think that we're pretty good. I believe it was the Apostle Paul. You know, you went down to the commandments and said, well, I sent this one and that one and this one and that one and so on. But he comes to one commandment where it says, thou shalt not covet.
And that just level and he realized that he wasn't as good as he thought.
And you need outside help. And so it's wonderful that the grace of God comes in and meets us, you know, need through Christ and his finished work.
Perfectly fulfilled the need. Thank.
And if a believer allow the old sinful self to work, then I would suggest the law has an application to the believer. It condemns it, doesn't it? Now, of course, he's condemned, perhaps on a higher authority than that. But at the same time, if a believer allows the flexor, the law will condemn him for that, and we recognize that.
Uh, I've mentioned this story before, but it's a true story about a man in the.
Southern states who was a believer but who got away from the Lord and was convicted of stealing chickens and eventually ended up in court as a result of it. And the evidence was clear and there was no question about his guilt. But then the judge, as they sometimes do, said Sergio. Have anything to say to yourself before I pronounce sentence?
And the man stepped up and said, yes, your honor, I would just like you to know that, uh, it wasn't to really I that did it. It was the old man.
Well, it so happens the judge also was a believer who knew exactly what he was referring to and he said, yes Sir, He said I very much agree with you with that and because of that we are going to put the old man in jail.
Well.
The law, its power against a Christian because.
He let the old nature take his course. He let his sinful self run up against that which was not only the law of God, but the law of the state, municipality, whatever you want, where he lived. And the consequences were there. He couldn't let himself off the hook by blaming his old nature for the sin. And so, as Bruce says, the law is very definitely there, but the believer has died to it.
And to live in the good of that position is the is the important thing. And that's what we have here in this chapter. We are coming to Mount Zion to say again what was said about.
2nd Corinthians 5 and 14 It doesn't say the love of Christ should constrain us now, nor does it say here He should come unto Mount Zion and so on. We are come on your mouth, right? And so every exhortation that God gives us.
00:45:09
Is based on the position in which we are already in and what we already possessed. God says, I have brought you to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to all of these things, and now.
You have the privilege of living up to it.
I think it's clear too, from, uh, what we have in Roman state, that, uh, if we walk in the power of the Spirit, it says that the righteousness of the law will be fulfilled in US.
Yeah, so although as believers we don't strive to keep the law, isn't it comforting to know that God is not going to be consistent with his own nature? And so as we are guided by the Holy Spirit, what's going to happen? We will both be fulfilling the righteousness of the law. I think that's beautiful to see that not that we strive to do that, but just to walk pleasing to the Lord and to allow the Spirit of God to guide us. That will be the result. God is faithful to his own nature.
So in the beginning of the chapter we had and and I want to frame a question here. We had looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith.
And the Spirit of God is encouraging us to look at that great example, what he went through, how he had the end in view, and how he achieved that and seated.
On the right hand of the majesty on high, seated on the Father's throne, He could have taken it even further out into the future. But he doesn't. He takes it just stops there. That's where the Lord Jesus is today as a man. He's not on his own throne, He's on his Father's throne.
It seems to me from Scripture, but that's sort of individual here. And I put this out as a question. He seems to be putting before these believers, the Longview saying don't have your Longview beam out Sinai and the law and that kind of thing. Have the Longview be this. And then he lists the series of of companies including angels.
Including the blood of Christ and all these these spheres of God's blessing based on the blood of Christ. I was trying to understand, I put that as a question is that why these two mountains are put before us in this in this book here?
What wasn't the danger of them turning back to what could be seen and so on? And eat cuts it off so that no resource to them.
Yes, and the whole thing is here is the precious blood of Christ, which.
Is really the basis of everything that we have here.
Uh, how could we come? How could God choose Mount Zion and bring David into the picture except by looking ahead to the one who would succeed David and on the basis of his finished work, God can act in sovereign grace. God, couldn't we say it reverently, even act in sovereign grace in the Old Testament, unless down the way there was going to be one who would come and deal with the question of sin.
And so it says here, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
And the correction to our King James is rather needed here because the term General Assembly refers to the company of angels, not to the church. Have you got the Darby there, Bruce? How does it go? Just so we have it accurately.
Verse 22 and 23. Verse 22. But ye have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.
And to myriads of angels, the universal gathering and the assembly of the first born who are registered in heaven, and so on. That's it.
And so it's this General Assembly of angels that we are brought to.
We don't want to go through this and dissected too much, but in the Old Testament, angels were viewed very, very highly. And anyone who had had an appearance from an Angel, wow, that was really something. And there's quite a bit said about angels in the book of Hebrews and about how the Lord Jesus has gone beyond angels and superseded them so that now angels have become what? The servants of you and of me.
00:50:04
Are they not ministering spirits? The same book here says.
Sent out on behalf of those and I am not quoting it accurately, or the heirs of salvation and to the Church of the first born, which are written in heaven. And then you might say the highest point. God the Judge of all.
And we might just say, and I don't want to go beyond what scripture says, but what is the end point?
When the Millennium is over and the eternal state comes in, First Corinthians 15 says that God may be All in all, and that is God not as God the Father, but as God in Trinity.
And so in one sense, while the end point is not developed here, I just suggest there's a hint of it here. To God, the Judge of all. But who is the judge, really?
Hasn't God committed all judgment under the sun? Yes, He has. So to me this is God in Trinity. And then we go to the spirits of just man made perfect. That is the Old Testament believers who are there in spirit, but who will get their glorified bodies when the Lord comes and that's referred to.
In the last verse of Chapter 11. And if God hath provided, having provided some better thing for us.
That they without us should not be made perfect.
Those dear Old Testament believers who died in faith will not have their glorified bodies until you and I as part of the Church.
R.
Come home and have our glorified bodies and then of course, the basis of it all, of Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant.
And I don't want to go on too long, but just an important comment here.
Paul is very if it is Paul, and I believe it is, is very careful in the book of Hebrews when talking about the new covenant never to put the believer in Christ, in covenant relationship with God. Yes, we come into the good of the new covenant because there can only be one basis for blessing the finished work of Christ. But the new covenant is with Israel. Covenant are an earthly faith.
The church is a heavenly people. So this whole talk of covenant theology and all that sort of thing is a mistake right from, as we could say, the get go because it immediately brings the Church of God down to the level of an earthly company and puts them in covenant relationship with God. No such thing for the church. The church is a heavenly company. Their relationship with God is not a covenant one, although the basis for their blessings.
His received basis on which the new covenant and that is finished work with Christ and that's why it is brought in here and it's spoken about multiple times in Hebrews and we don't have time to go into it all.
But the author of Hebrews through the Spirit of God is very, very careful.
To go only so far in remarks about covenants and the first covenant, but never to indicate that the believer today and the Church is in covenant relationship with love.
Very clear from Hebrews 8 verse eight, it says I will make a new covenant, the House of Israel and with the House of Judah very explicit there two houses are presented. Anyway, covenant theologians get around it by making.
The church is right and This is why we then then then confusion just reigns up to that point.
Covenants are not the organizing principle with which to understand God's ways in Scriptures. Christ is. As you've been saying, Put Christ in the equation that all sells out and starts to make sense.
We enjoy all the blessings of the New Covenant, but we're not under it. In fact, you can contrast there the blessings that we enjoy with what we find at the end of Equals 8. The blessings that we enjoy. All the things that we have in Christ goes so far beyond what is described there in the papers day.
And so people get into difficulty in their minds by the simplistic thought that everything in the New Testament is about the church.
Matthew is about to, because Matthew is the first book in the New Testament. So is it all about the church?
00:55:01
But when you read the Old Testament prophecies, you realize that certain things had to happen to bring in and confirm and bring to pass the prophecies that were prophesied and independent upon the work of Christ, work of Christ. The facts of the of of of Christ life and death are in the New Testament and the securing of the blessing of Israel as as as as one of the of the Jews said Jesus.
That that he should die for that nation. Umm it's it's imperative just as as if someone chat what right do you have to be in heaven? Christ died for me and shed his blood. That's why I shall be in heaven.
And another nation next door from Jordan or Syria, what right to those people have to be investing because Christ died and he died for that nation and his death on Calvary's cross confirmed the promises and secures the promises in a future day that took place in in factually in the Gospels. And the confirmation of the old covenant being replaced by the new is taken up doctrinally in the New Testament, even though it doesn't directly apply to our particular blessing. So.
I found that helpful as a young believer to understand and, and it's just makes so much sense that the Spirit of God wouldn't wouldn't just leave everything hanging for the for the Jew who or, or for the new believer who had been a Jew or what about all of these traditions. So the Spirit of God double s back Romans 9 through 11 and other places to take it up carefully and and and and and intelligently to satisfy the conscience of a of a Jewish believer to, to understand.
Those future earthly blessings. So, but just because it's in the New Testament doesn't mean we need to start doing that amalgamation that the covenant theology tries to do. I feel sorry for them. So dear brothers that are twisted in their minds with this kind of thing, you wish to just back up and get more simple. Enjoy the blessing that we have proper to us.
There are very distinct companies named here, and in itself is an answer.
To these things the first adjustment made perfect is distinct from the Church of the first quarter. Good point. So there are various families in heaven. We have that back in Hebrews chapter 3 and in the King James it says upon the whole family in heaven and both his name. The new translation Davis translation says I think every family in the heavens on the earth. They're distinct companies. Very good.
So in the last few minutes, why do we have these serious warnings that at the end of this chapter, after all that we have had and as it were, come to that mountain peak of grace that the Lord has brought us to and Mount Zion and all these things. Why then the serious warnings that are in the last three or four verses here?
Well, I don't know if Bill is this is the answer, but I was just commenting to uh.
Him and Jan about the the fish that's out on the sidewalk out there.
The, there was a man who came into our place of business with, uh, or a repair job on his car and he handed my brother a business card. I'm on it. He had the fish. And so my brother said to him, are you a Christian? Well, that fish is really good for business. And I and I, you know, there were those here in this book who had been brought along.
Or at least there was a danger that they might have been brought along.
With that current of Christianity and associated with it, we find that over and over again through the book that they tasted as a heavenly gift. They've been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and they said, well, they must have been saved. No, they weren't.
But they had the fish on the business card, that is they benefited from Christianity and no real participation. So the word of warning in Hebrews consistently, how shall we escape if we neglect some great starvation, Uh, and it's apostasy that turns away because the blood of Abel, pride for judgment. And that's all that's left with man rejects the blood of Christ. The blood of sprinkling is the blood of Jesus.
That brings forgiveness, pardon the blood of Abel's, the voice of my brother, blood client from the ground. That is the other option. There's no other ground. There's not the fish on the business card. That brings me the benefits of Christianity without having Christ as my Savior at that point.
01:00:18
See that he refused, not in the street.
Well, I think that's excellent, Phil. And I feel that's really what is.
Before us here, because, as you say, there were those dear Jewish people who, having heard about Christianity, accepted it in an over way, and as you say, perhaps felt that it was a much easier lifestyle than being under law with all its restrictions. Peter could say in Acts 15, Why tempt you God, to put upon the necks of the brethren a yoke that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?
Was a very hard deal to be under the law and well, I guess I'll be a Christian and I'll be free of all that. But how solemn to take that place outwardly without any reality inwardly. The only thing I would add, and I believe it's again.
A principle with God that very often God gives a warning which in its essence refers to unbelievers, but which is intended as a warning to believers too.
And I suggest there's something of that here as well.
Those who refused the voice of him that spake on earth, no doubt referring to Moses.
They, as it says here, they did not escape.
How much more if we refuse the voice of him that speaketh from heaven? Well, of course that was the gospel preached to Israel from a risen Christie glory. Now where they going to refuse it?
How serious, But how serious for a believer?
Who, in the words of verse 27, becomes taken up with things that can and will be shaken and neglect those things that are really going to react?
And so I suggest there's a warning here.
Because the 28th verse is clearly referring to believers.
And how should we serve in reverence and godly fear? Why? Because.
The tendencies in my own heart.
If I allow the old sinful self to act are no better than the old sinful self in an unbeliever, does that commend itself?
Scripture characterizes an act by its tendency and if I as a believer who am really destined to be in heaven with and like Christ.
Continue on a practical path morally.
Then God characterizes that path by the end that but for the grace of God, it would lead to I may get on Hwy. what is it 25 out here and be just heading up, you know, an hour or something or up to to house. But it might say, well, I'm on the road to Fort Collins or I'm on the road to Wyoming. Really I'm just going to get off at his place. But that's some of the language in the New Testament exhortations to us the end of those things Paul says in Romans his death.
What does that mean? As a believer, I'm going to.
Judged in the Lake of fire? No, but that's the that's.
Scripture characterizes an act by its tendency, and that's the tendency of that thing. If I if I am careless and I and I stumble my brother, which the scriptures call the work of God.
Are you going to make the weak brother perish, or is he really going to perish? Oh, he's a brother in Christ. My tendency is to stumble and put him down in that direction. So, and if you just put that in the back of your mind as you read through the New Testament, I think you'll see that principle things is often employed.
By the Spirit of God.
As we serve God acceptably with reverence to godly fears, instead of Esau that he.
Umm was a profane puss. And what does profane mean? Means to treat those things which are divine as if they're common. The word just means common, to treat them as a everyday thing. And as believers, we can do that in our lives too.
And we can treat the chest seismic of the Lord as being we can despise it. We can resent it. You know, the jobs fault in the end was not some secret sin that his friends thought that he had. His ultimate sin was that he justified himself at the expense of God. And so in a trial too, we can we can get angry with God. Why are you allowing this in my life?
01:05:23
This is not appropriate for a believer. It doesn't mean, as you said, that we're going to lose our salvation, but we'll lose sight of the Lord without which, as it says at the end of that verse, and it was brought out yesterday, just very briefly, which fall of peace with old man and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. As I pointed out, there are those that insist that this speaks of eternal things, our salvation. It's not the point here in this chapter. It's certainly true that without holiness we can't see the Lord. But in the beginning of the chapter.
It began with looking unto Jesus, the author and finish of our faith. And in fact earlier in the second chapter Hebrews it says umm, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels and so forth.
Will lose sight of us if we despise the work of God in our in our lives and these these Jewish believers were as we've said, we're suffering persecution and they didn't know how to interpret it They were.
Floundering. Neither the word of encouragement. And they also needed a word of warning.
Connection with my new step brother Bill would be going too far to say that there's uh.
Statement Our God is a consuming fire would apply to believer and unbeliever alike that anything that is not of God is going to be burned up.
Our God is consuming fire.
I don't think so, because we get a similar expression, don't we? In 2nd Corinthians 5? We've got a minute or two and it wouldn't hurt to turn to it. I was going to remark on that, and I'm glad you brought it up.
In 2nd Corinthians 5 we have, I believe, that analogy hinted at because it says there in verse 10.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and of course that's for believers, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
But then what does he say? Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, Well, you and I will never in that sense know the terror of the Lord. That's what we preach in the gospel meeting. That's what our brother Wally talked about last night. The terror of the Lord is the awfulness of God's judgment. But if I had been brought into God's family, then what a serious thing deliberately to indulge in that.
Which eventually we'll have to feel the consuming fire from God because it was done in self will or in direct disobedience or whatever it might have been. So I don't think it's going too far to make that application at all.
One final comment that I was appreciating in verse 28.
In the midst of all these solemn warnings.
What is once again?
The power to serve God with reverence and God be fear.
Let us have grace.
God always ends if we could save on a positive note, doesn't He? He occupies our hearts with grace. Yes, we do need to be reminded that He's a consuming fire. We do need to be reminded about the seriousness of.
As Phil was bringing up taking an outward position without any inward reality, but.
The bottom line is that God is a God of grace who on the one hand will have all men to be saved and to come under the knowledge of the truth, and who would have you and me as believers to walk with a sense of grace.
That strongest power to keep us going after Christ.
He has made every provision heavenly for our pathway down here.
01:10:06
And we could sing it with him.
Pleasure of changing.
Uh.
One trust standing in the middle of the Friday may be I have a bronze child. Glorious, brilliant. Uh-huh. Uh huh. Uh. Would you give me a minute to tell the rain clamping?
Never end shall I have omitted stinking to him, staying with a man.
All the same time.
And I went to.
A lot of her dad and her while I was there and prayers blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Umm.
Also, perhaps the last two verses of #47.
Verses four and five of #47 we can sing it to the same cue.
Uh, uh, I'm great. It's very nice time.
On the word shall frown.
Through the past work and I'll see you today.
In the heavens Still haven't done the top Most of them.
As well.
Teasers are great.