The New Testament Book of Hebrews is an encouragement. It's an exhortation, as you'd
say. What is an exhortation? That's
an encouragement for believers. Edification, building up, growing
in grace and knowledge. And the Book of Hebrews is an
encouragement to believers, those who know Christ, who believe
in Him and rest in Him, It's an encouragement to persevere,
to continue against all that comes against us in persecution,
whether it be physical, whether it be mental, societal, whatever,
persecution comes. It's an encouragement for us
to continue in the faith. And the greatest encouragement
that a true believer can have that would encourage us to continue
is an assurance of salvation based upon a strong, unshakable
ground. That's the greatest encouragement.
Now, not everyone sees it that way. In the past, I've run into
preachers who almost, they preach doubt as almost a virtue. But
in Hebrews here, in Hebrews 12, where I'm going to preach from
at the end of it, it begins by telling us to lay aside every
weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, which is
unbelief, doubt. And how do we do that? Hebrews
12.2 tells us, looking unto Jesus. Now not just some esoteric, symbolic,
wisp of an idea of Jesus, which most people have today. Some
idea. No, looking unto Jesus, the author,
the originator, the beginner, and the finisher, the completer
of our faith. In other words, looking unto
Christ as my whole salvation, that all conditions were laid
upon him, and he fulfilled those conditions. He's my assurance.
In him, in 2 Corinthians 1.20, It says, in Christ, in Him, are
all the promises of God. The promises of God to His people,
believers, are yea, and in Him, amen. That means they're sure
and certain in Him. They're not sure and certain in me. If it's
conditioned on me, I'll tell you what, it can be shaken. It can be lost. But see, the
gospel preaches that the salvation of sinners is by God's grace,
not works, but grace, conditioned on Jesus Christ. Laid on His
shoulders, and He came as the representative, the surety, the
substitute of His people, kept the law perfectly, which you
and I cannot do, and do not do today. Kept it perfectly. and went to the cross having
our sin debt, the sin debt of God's chosen people, laid to
His charge. And what did He do to pay that
sin debt? He suffered unto death. He died. And His death paid in
full our sin debt. That's called redemption. Paid
in full. Redeemed by the blood of Christ. The blood of the lamb, the spotless
lamb. He had no sin, he did no sin.
He died because of my sins credited to him. And he paid my debt in
full. Jesus paid it all, the song says. How do you know it was successful?
He arose from the dead. What does that mean? That means
our sins were put away, purged, washed away. What can wash away
my sins? What's the next line? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. So my sins were put away and
righteousness was established for me by him. Not by me, but
by him for me. And now I'm justified. I'm justified
before God. I'm forgiven. I'm declared righteous
based upon what Christ did, the merits of his obedience unto
death, accounted, credited, the word imputed is the biblical
word, imputed to me. And so my assurance of salvation
is not what I do. People say, well, I know I'm
saved because back when I was 12, I walked and I gave my heart
to Jesus and got baptized. That's gonna be shaken. I'm telling
you. Oh, I know I'm saved because
I stopped smoking, stopped drinking. Well, you should stop smoking
and you should stop drinking, but let me tell you something,
that'll be shaken. If it's based upon anything I
do or don't do, it'll be shaken. But when I tell you I stand upon
the rock Christ Jesus, my hope is built on nothing less than
Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ, the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
Now that cannot be shaken. That's the rock Christ Jesus.
And so, in Hebrews 12 here, The Lord God is telling these people
who claim to be believers, claim to be Christian, if you really
are, and not just as a social thing, claiming to
be a Christian, like most of us, we grew up in religion and
we got baptized when we were 12, 13, 14, whatever. And that's
what we look back to, a lot of people look back to as the ground
of their salvation, that's sad. I'm looking to Christ, no matter
what I did back then. So he's telling these people,
here's the reality. Look at verse 18. You are not
come unto the mount that might be touched. That's a physical
mount. The mountain upon which your salvation stands is not
a physical mountain that can be touched. and that burned with
fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the
sound of a trumpet, verse 19, the voice of words, which voice
they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken
to them anymore. This is the picture. Here's Israel
after being delivered from Egypt at the foot of Mount Sinai, where
God gave Moses the law. And that law was so strict Somebody told me one time, said,
well, God wouldn't give them a law that they can't keep. You
better read your Bible. And you better know why God gave
them the law. God gave them the law to show
them that they could not keep it. That's why he gave it. Somebody
says, well, that sounds mean. Oh, no, let me tell you something,
friend. That's the best thing you can ever come to see. The
law of God. Which can be summarized how?
You remember how it's summarized? Love the Lord your God with all
your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.
And when you say that word neighbor in the Bible, that means your
worst enemy. Love your worst enemy as yourself. None of us have kept that law
perfectly. You say, well, I've tried to.
That's not what the law says. That's not what this mountain
says. They heard the words of it and they said, no, don't tell
us anymore. And look at verse 20, for they could not endure
that which was commanded. I was having lunch with a fellow
one time and a friend of his had just passed away. And he
told me a preacher came out of the room where the fella died.
He said, I know that man's saved. And my friend asked him, well,
how do you know that? He said, because he did that which was
required. And I asked the fella, when we
were eating lunch, I said, well, what is required? Do you know?
He said, well, really, I don't. I said, I'll tell you exactly
what's required. Perfection. That's what's required. The perfection
of the Lord. And he looked at me and he said,
well nobody can do that. I said, that's right. And that's
why salvation is by what? Grace. Based upon the righteousness
of Christ. Not by works. That's what the
whole purpose of this is. He says, verse 20, they could
not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
that mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
God was showing them the strictness of that law. And he commanded
them. Remember he said for Moses and
some of the elders to come up, but the people stay away. And
even if a beast, a cow or a horse touched that mountain, it was
to be killed. That's the strictness of the
law. Verse 21 says, and so terrible was the sight that Moses said,
I exceedingly fear and quake. Shaken. When God the Holy Spirit draws
sinners to Christ for salvation, he does not lead them to the
law for salvation, for forgiveness, for righteousness, for eternal
life. He uses the law to convince us the impossibility of salvation
by a law keeping. And that's what all this describes,
the fiery and severe judgment of God's law upon sinners where
sin is charged, sin is imputed. Romans 3, 19, listen to this.
Now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty before God. Verse 20 says, therefore,
by deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified, be forgiven,
or be declared righteous in God's sight. For by the law is the
knowledge of sin. What does the law tell me about
myself? It tells me there's none righteous, no, not one. There's
none good, no, not one, in God's sight now, as God sees it. Not as your friends or your best
friends or your compadres see it. They may look at you and
say, boy, he or she's really a good person. But how do we
stand before God? That's what salvation is interested
in. So he says, you're not come to
Sinai. He says in verse 22, but you
are come to Mount Zion. Now the word Zion there's with
an S. Oftentimes in the Bible it's
spelled with a Z. It's Zion. It's the same thing.
You come to Zion. What is Zion? The glory of Mount
Zion. He says unto the city of the
living God. The heavenly Jerusalem. You wanna make a trek to Jerusalem?
Go ahead, have a vacation. But that's not the Holy Land.
This is the heavenly Jerusalem. And to an innumerable company
of angels, the angels of God, messengers of God. Verse 23,
look at this. To the general assembly and church
of the firstborn. Now the firstborn there is referring
to Christ in his resurrection. The first fruits. One who died
was buried and risen. Which are written in heaven,
their names are written in heaven in the Lamb's Book of Life, the
scripture says. And to God the judge of all,
God's a God of justice. And to the spirits, that means
living. Man by nature is spiritually
dead. That's why we have to be born
again. But these are living spirits, human beings, just men, justified,
forgiven of all their sins on a just ground, declared righteous
before God on a just ground. What is the just ground? The
obedience unto death of Jesus Christ, his blood, his righteousness. That can't be shaken. Christ
told his disciples the gates of hell will not prevail against Just men made perfect. Perfect
how? That means complete. Well, the
Bible says in Colossians chapter two, that in verse nine, that
in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you
are complete in him. He's my completeness. Verse 24, this tells you what
he's talking about here. And to Jesus, the mediator, the
advocate, the one mediator between God and men, the mediator of
the New Covenant, a New Testament, not that Old Covenant law on
Mount Sinai, but the New Covenant in Christ. The Old Covenant,
Israel as a nation, their prosperity and well-being as far as temporal,
physical blessings under that Old Covenant, it was conditioned
on them. And if you read the Old Testament,
read the history of Israel, they failed. So would we have. But the new covenant is not conditioned
on sinners, it's conditioned on Christ. And that's what this
Mount Zion is all about. And to the blood of sprinkling
that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Now hold on to
that and I'll talk about that in just a minute. But Zion is
the city of God, that's what Zion is. This spiritual Zion,
this eternal Zion. The word Zion occurs in the Bible
over 150 times in the Bible. The word Zion means fortification. It's the idea of being raised
up like a mountain where nobody can get to you. A safe place. There was a physical Zion or
there is a physical Zion, which is the city of David, even Jerusalem. It was called Zion. First mentioned
back in 2 Samuel 5 verse 7, listen, nevertheless David took the stronghold
of Zion, the same as the city of David. It was originally an
ancient Jebusite fortress in the city of Jerusalem. David
went in and he conquered it. His conquest of that fortress,
Jerusalem became the possession of Israel. The royal palace was
built there. Zion, Jerusalem became the seat
of power of Israel's kingdom. Mount Zion was the high hill
on which David built a fortress. When Solomon built the temple
in Jerusalem, the meaning of Zion expanded further to include
the temple. And that's the meaning found
in the prophecy of Jeremiah. He said in Jeremiah 31 6, come,
let us go up to Zion to the Lord God. He meant to the temple.
Let's go to the temple. So in the Old Testament, Zion
is used as a name for the city of Jerusalem. It's used as a
name of the land of Judah. It's used as the name of the
nation Israel as a whole. And then as the Bible progresses
historically, the word Zion expanded its scope to take on an additional
spiritual meaning. And that's where this is talking
about here. This is a spiritual Zion. This is not a physical
Zion. This is not someplace you can find on a map of geography. This is not a place over in the
Mideast. This is the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem. This is the true church of the
living God built upon the person and work of Christ. As Christ
said, upon this rock I will build my church. He wasn't talking
about Peter there, he was talking about himself. His glorious person,
who is Jesus Christ? He is God manifest in the flesh. We can't depend upon ourselves
or any mere man or woman. We depend upon the God-man. That's who he is. And built upon his finished work
as my Redeemer. The blood of Jesus and the gates
of hell cannot prevail against it. This is Zion. And listen to all
the descriptions here. The city of the living God. What
is that? That's his city of salvation. We're citizens of a heavenly
king, that's God's kingdom. The city of the living God, not
a dead God, not an idol. The heavenly Jerusalem, Jerusalem
being the city of peace, how do we have peace with God? Through
the blood of Christ. He made peace by the blood of
his cross. How does God reconcile the sinners and sinners unto
God? Based upon Christ's righteousness credited, imputed to our account. That's the heavenly Jerusalem.
Innumerable company of angels, God's angels, have been watching
over God's people all along and they'll continue to do so. Verse
23, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn. This
is the church that Jesus Christ has built and the gates of hell
will not prevail. To God the judge of all. God
did not suspend his justice in order to save his people. You
say, well God is love, God is mercy, God is grace. Yes, but
not without justice satisfied. That's why Christ had to come
and be made under the law to redeem them under the law. God
is gracious to his people based upon justice satisfied in the
person and work of Christ. Grace reigns through what? Righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. This idea that most
religionists who call themselves Christian have, that God loves
you and Christ died for you, now the rest is up to you, that
is not the city of Zion. That is not in the scripture.
God loves his people with an everlasting love. He sent Christ
to die for them and nothing can separate them from him in that
love. He says, to the spirits of just
men made perfect. That's our fellowship. That's
our friends in Christ, our brothers and sisters in Christ. They're
justified and made complete by the grace of God in Christ. And
he says, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. It's all
based upon what Christ accomplished. We come to Christ by the power
of God. Even the faith that links us
to Christ spiritually is a gift from God. For by grace are you
saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And then he
says, to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel. Now you know who Abel was. Abel
was the first victim of murder. And who murdered him? His brother. What is this talking about? To
the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than Abel.
Well, we know that before Abel was murdered, that he approached
God to worship God and to be blessed of God on what basis? The blood of a lamb. He brought
the blood. That's because that's the way
God commanded. That blood was a picture. a type of the blood
of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Abel, in bringing that blood,
was looking by faith to the promised Messiah to come for his salvation. His assurance that he would be
accepted with God was that blood that pictured Christ. But you
know how Cain came, don't you? He worked hard in his field and
he brought the best fruits of his labors, his works, and God
rejected him. Cain rose up, killed Abel, because
he was angry with Abel. The blood of sprinkling, which
Abel had, was the blood of a real animal. It was a picture. It was a type. It was a shadow. And if that's what he's talking
about here, in seeing the actual blood of Christ, I don't mean
with the physical eye, but knowing that Christ died, that's what
his blood means, he died. The blood of Christ speaks even
better things than that which Abel sacrificed. But I have a
tendency to look at this a little different way. Talking about
Abel's actual blood that Cain shed, that could be what it's
talking about. It says that his blood, that
this blood that we turn to Christ, that speaks better things than
what Abel's blood spoke. Well, Abel's blood cried out
for vengeance. Cain murdered Abel. Christ's
blood cries out for mercy. Isn't that better? Justice is
satisfied. God has dealt with my sins, but
he didn't deal with them in me, he dealt with them in Christ. And Christ spoke, look at verse
25. He says, see that you refuse
not him that speaketh. In other words, all that word
that came down from Sinai, that comes down from Abel, see that
you refuse not God who speaks now. For if they escape not who
refused him that spoke on earth, Moses and the law, much more
shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from
heaven. This is the Word of God. He says in verse 26, whose voice
then shook the earth, but now he hath promised saying, yet
once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. Verse
27, this word yet once more signify the removing of those things
that are shaken. That old covenant has been abolished. It's no longer in force. And
he said, as of things that are made, that those things which
cannot be shaken may remain. Now, what is it that cannot be
shaken? This city of Zion, this kingdom of God, the spiritual
kingdom, salvation. He says in verse 28, wherefore
we receiving a kingdom which cannot be removed, this glorious
city of Zion, this glorious Mount Zion, cannot be moved, it cannot
be shaken. Let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, with
respect. Serve God. Persevere in the faith
because you've got a solid unshakable ground. And this is God's words. He spoke. He spoke in the creation
of all things out of nothing. He spoke from Sinai and giving
the law which shows us we cannot be saved by our works. He spoke
as the prophet of the church in the day of his flesh. He spoke
from the cross when he said, it is finished. It's done. Salvation is not something you
do. Salvation is dependent upon something that Christ already
did. A work done, a work finished. He spoke through his servants
in giving the scriptures. He speaks now in heaven, interceding
for believers. And he concludes it with this,
verse 29. For our God is a consuming fire. Let me show you this verse in
closing. John chapter three. In John chapter three. And what he's talking about here
is that it's only those who are in Christ, washed in his blood,
clothed in his righteousness, that have no possibility of being
under the wrath of God. In Christ, we're safe. We're
citizens of a heavenly kingdom, the heavenly Jerusalem. We dwell
in Mount Zion, a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And listen
to what he says in the last verse of John 3, verse 36. He that believeth on the Son,
that's Christ, hath everlasting life. It's a done deal. You can't
lose it. It's by grace. It's not conditioned
on you or me. And he says, and he that believeth
not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him. Our God is a consuming fire. Our only hope of salvation is
one who took my sins on the cross and suffered the consuming fire
of God, his wrath, in my place. Believe on Him. Rest in Him. Plead His blood, His right. Stop
talking about what all you've done or God's enabled you to
do and start talking about what Christ has already accomplished
in His obedience unto death. That's the unshakeable kingdom.
That's the glory of Mount Zion.