So let's begin in Hebrews chapter
12. I've entitled today's message, The Fear of the Lord. The Fear of the Lord. And you'll
see why we get to this by reading with me together in Hebrews chapter
12. I'm going to begin at verse 25.
Last week and the week before we looked at verses 18 through
24, and those verses compare, really contrast, the two covenants. The one from Sinai, the one given
by God by speaking on earth, the one having to do with animal
sacrifices, a physical tabernacle on earth, priests who were sinful
and who themselves needed their sins to be forgiven, and people
who were put under a covenant that required their obedience
to fulfill that covenant and to obtain blessings from God
and to avoid death, the curse of death. And that is all contrasted
in Hebrews chapter 12 verses 18 through 24 with the new covenant. The covenant that is made in
Christ's blood, the covenant that is now administered by Jesus
Christ from heaven. The covenant that has to do with,
that's not a temporal covenant, that has to do with the conditions
that Christ alone could and did fulfill. And the covenant that
is everlasting, it's going to go on and on, there's never going
to be an end. And it has to do with the spiritual
people, not physical descendants of Abraham, but people born of
God. So those are the contrasts just
in overview that we saw in verses 18 through 24. And now in verse
25, if you read with me to the end of the chapter, it says,
see that you refuse not him that speaketh. God spoke on earth
when he spoke at Sinai. The people heard the voice. He
spoke through Moses. Moses was his servant. But now
God speaks from heaven. He speaks in his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the huge contrast here. God spoke on earth then, he speaks
from heaven now. Then he spoke by Moses, now he
speaks in his son. And he says, if they, he says,
see that you refuse not him that speaketh. God is the one who's
speaking. How does God speak to us anyway?
Well, he doesn't speak out loud by a voice to us. He speaks from
his word. And particularly, he speaks in
the gospel to us whenever the gospel is preached. And this
is a very important thing. God is speaking today. He's speaking today by the preaching
of his gospel. Jesus Christ is speaking to his
people and through his people in the preaching of the gospel
in the world today. If they refuse the word that
was spoken to them on earth, then they refuse the God who
spoke that word. And if we refuse the word of
God spoken by Christ from heaven through his people now on earth,
then we refuse God, we refuse Jesus Christ, and we refuse in
refusing his word. So whenever we hear the gospel
preached, we have to realize we are hearing from God. We're
hearing from Christ on his throne. He is the one who commissioned
his people to speak the gospel. And so he says here, see that
you refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escape not who refused
him that speak on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. That would be Jesus
Christ. whose voice then shook the earth,
but now he hath promised, saying, yet once more I shake not the
earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more,
signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of
things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken
may remain." So this is actually a prophecy from the book of Haggai. Haggai was a prophet in the Old
Testament. He lived in the time when the
people of Judah, the Jews, had been taken captive from Jerusalem
by the Babylonians. For 70 years, they were held
captive in Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah was
the prophet in those days, and he said that the people of Judah
who were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar would one day return to Jerusalem.
And they did. At the end of 70 years, God revealed
to Daniel that the time had come, and Daniel spoke of the return
of the Jews to Jerusalem. And the way that happened was,
if you read the book of Ezra, there was a king who overcame
Nebuchadnezzar and that king's name was Darius. Remember Daniel
was in the lion's den and Darius had these presidents and Daniel
was the chief president and Daniel was in the lion's den and Darius
was the king of Persia and he He liked Daniel, he favored Daniel,
or Daniel was a favorite in his eyes. And so Darius was there,
and after Darius came a king called Cyrus, and Cyrus gave
a commandment according to the prophecy of Isaiah that he would
rebuild Jerusalem. You can read about that in Isaiah
44 verse 28. And that prophecy was given years before they were
ever in Babylon. But after they got into Babylon
and when God's time for Judah to return to Jerusalem came,
Cyrus was raised up by God and God put it in Cyrus' heart to
give a commandment to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Now,
this is the context. Understand what has happened
here. In the book of Haggai, The people had returned, some
of the people, not all of them, had returned from Babylon to
Jerusalem for the purpose of rebuilding the temple and the
city and to reestablish the worship of God in Jerusalem. That's where
they had been taken captive from. Nebuchadnezzar had come, he had
taken all the vessels of worship, he had destroyed the city of
Jerusalem, broken down the wall, everything was destroyed. But
now, according to God's prophecy and timing, at the end of 70
years captivity in Babylon, the people of Judah are returned
And it's under the command of Cyrus, who was a king of Persia,
who had overcome, earlier the kings of Persia had overcome
Nebuchadnezzar, and now the people of Judah were given liberty to
return to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the temple. Okay?
That's what happened historically. So Haggai is a prophet who, when
he spoke the words that are written here in Hebrews chapter 12, and
this is back in the book of Haggai, we're going to look at that in
a minute, but when he spoke these words, the people who had come
back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, They had started
the work, but then they had stopped. They had started the work and
they had laid some of the foundation of that temple, but they had
become interested in their own private matters. So they were
planting and they were trying to gain money, they were building
their own houses, and they had left the work of building the
temple, left the work of rebuilding Jerusalem, left the work of reestablishing
the worship of God in Jerusalem. Okay, that's the setting. Haggai
was sent by God to prophesy, to tell them that they needed
to do this, and so he speaks in Haggai according to the prophecy,
and God's spirit came upon two men at that time. One's name
was Zerubbabel, and the other one's name was Joshua. Zerubbabel
was the governor, and Joshua was the priest. And he also,
God also, moved upon the people and they began to rebuild the
temple again. So they had been sent by Cyrus
under the guidance of Ezra and Nehemiah, and now they're back
in and they're rebuilding again because Haggai preaches to them,
he prophesies from God, the Lord is with you. Stop building your
own houses. Stop putting your own priorities
in the present life ahead of those of the worship of God.
Rather, get busy and do the work God has given you to do. So they
laid the foundation and they built the temple. And as they
were building it, God asked them in Haggai, because some of the
people who had come back from Babylon were old enough to have
been around to see the first temple that Nebuchadnezzar had
destroyed. And God asked them in Haggai,
he asked them, now you who have seen this temple that has been
rebuilt, How does it compare to the temple that Solomon built,
the first one? Because in your eyes it doesn't
appear as glorious as that first temple. And so they looked upon
it and they saw that it was not nearly as great and glorious
as the first temple. And so the Lord prophesies on
occasion of that in Haggai. I'm gonna read from Haggai there
now. I'm turning to Haggai and it
says in Haggai chapter two, And verse three, actually verse two,
it says, this is Haggai, by the word of the Lord, chapter two,
verse two. He says, and Haggai, by the way,
is after the book of Zephaniah and just before the book of Zechariah
in the Old Testament. So in Haggai 2.2, Haggai is sent
to speak from God to these people. It says, speak now to Zerubbabel,
the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the
son of Josedek, the high priest, and to the residue of the people.
Residue means the small number of people left who were brought
back, again, from captivity to Jerusalem. Not all of them, but
a portion of the people who were in captivity are brought back.
Verse 3, God asked this question through Haggai. He says, Who
is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? In
other words, who's old enough to have lived when Solomon's
temple was still standing, to remember how great it looked? He says, Who among you, who is
left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And
how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it as nothing?" So in comparison to that first one, this second
one that they rebuilt was really, had no glory at all. But this
is, this is a setup. God's going to use this to make
a prophecy. Verse four, Yet now be strong,
O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong, O Joshua, son
of Josedek the high priest, and be strong, all you people of
the land, saith the Lord, and work. For I am with you, saith
the Lord of hosts, according to the word that I covenanted
with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth
among you, fear ye not. So now God is telling them through
Haggai the prophet, do not fear, do the work, because something
is going to be revealed. He says, verse six, here's what's
gonna happen. For thus saith the Lord of hosts,
yet once, It is a little while, and I will shake the heavens,
and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will shake
all nations, and notice, and the desire of all nations shall
come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of
hosts. He goes on, verse eight, the
silver is mine, the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The
glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former,
saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give
peace, saith the Lord of hosts. Okay, so that's the prophecy
that the writer to the Hebrews references and mentions in chapter
12 of Hebrews. What does it all mean? How does
it all tie together? Because this is important that
we understand this so that we can understand what's being spoken
of and the impact of it in Hebrews chapter 12. Well, the house that
God is speaking about here is the house of God, the temple
of the Lord. And the Lord's prophecy is that
the desire of nations would come. And when the desire of nations
would come, then the glory of the latter house would be greater
than the glory of the former. The first temple Solomon built,
which we know from the Bible, from the Old Testament, was full
of gold. Magnificent, it took years for
Solomon and all the people of Israel to build it, so it was
unparalleled in its beauty and in the jewels and the gold and
all the wood and everything, the carvings and everything that
were made for that first house. It would be nothing compared
to the latter house that was coming, when the desire of nations
would come. What God is talking about in
the prophecy is that when the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, would come in the nature of His people, the desire of
nations, that's Jesus Christ. When he would come, then God's
house would be established and the glory of it would be so far
beyond the temple of Solomon that there would be no comparison
except that the one was called a temple and the other one is
the true temple. Jesus said when he was on earth,
a greater than Solomon is here, remember? So that Jesus Christ,
no doubt, is the greater than Solomon. And the house that God,
God's house is where God dwells. And the house of God are his
people, the temple. We are the temple of the Spirit
of God. Christ dwells in his people individually. And the Spirit of God has knit
together all of every believer into the body of Christ. There's
one Spirit that dwells in all believers, and that's one body,
that's the body of Christ called the Church. And that's what we
were reading about in Hebrews 12 the last two weeks. This is
the City of God. This is the New Jerusalem. This
is the Zion on Mount Zion, the Kingdom of Christ. Now, what
God is saying here, he's drawing our attention to the way God
sees things. God's dwelling is in his people. God's kingdom, the kingdom of
Christ, is the kingdom that rules over all the kingdoms of the
earth. And all those who were in captivity
in Babylon represent all those who are saved by the Lord Jesus
Christ, who are brought out of the captivity of Satan. The reign
of sin, which is unto death, remember? Sin reigns to death.
The reign of Satan over the lost of this world, we've been translated
out of that kingdom. We've been brought out of the
reign of sin because of the reign of Christ, by grace. So, the
Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Christ, the Church of God, all
these are synonyms Christ the Lord himself came in our nature,
he lived, he suffered, he fulfilled God's word, he fulfilled every
jot and tittle of the law, the prophets and the Psalms, he fulfilled
the everlasting covenant in his blood, he was raised from the
dead, he ascended to heaven, he was sat on the right hand
of the throne of God, the one who came in our nature, the son
of God, now reigns in heaven, and he rules over all the kingdoms
of this earth, and the rule of his kingdom is the gospel, the
gospel. And so I will read a couple of
verses to show you that this is his rule. For example, in
Psalm 110, this is spoken of in the New Testament, but he
says it here in Psalm 110, which is clearly a psalm of Christ. He says in verse three, I'm sorry,
he says in verse one, the Lord said to my Lord, in other words,
Jehovah, the triune God said unto the Lord Jesus Christ, David's
Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
footstool. Okay, this is God speaking about
Jesus who would be seated on the right hand of God with all
power in heaven and earth because he accomplished our salvation
and he was appointed to that rule, the Lamb of God on the
throne. He says to him, I'm going to
make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Verse two, the
Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. What is
Zion? That's the people of God. That's
the mount. on which God, that's the kingdom
of Christ. Christ rules in that kingdom
over all the kingdoms of the earth and the rod of his strength
that is sent out of Zion is the gospel. The gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. It's the scepter, it's Christ's
rule by which he brings his people into that kingdom and subdues
them and also pronounces judgment on Satan and his kingdom. It's the fulfillment of all of
the work of our salvation. That's the gospel, the fulfillment
of all of the work of our salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that work was finished by Him, and His accomplishments of that,
in that work, is our eternal salvation from sin to glory. Everything is by the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, by His merit. by what he did and what
he accomplished. And because he reigns over all
now in heaven, he does send his gospel. Now back to Hebrews chapter
12, and consider these things in light of what we talked about
a moment ago in the book of Haggai. In Hebrews chapter 12, he says,
see that you refuse not him that speaketh. And who is that? Well, it's God. Specifically,
it's not just God as the triune God, but it's God the Son of
God. For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth,
much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that
speaketh from heaven, Jesus Christ on his throne, whose voice then
shook the earth at Sinai, But now he has promised, saying yet
once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. When Jesus
Christ rose from the dead and ascended to heaven's throne,
all of the philosophies of men, all of the religions of men,
and the kingdoms of this world were shaken to their very foundations. And that's what God said would
happen. When Nebuchadnezzar, in the book of Daniel, dreamed
that dream, and he saw that image set up, remember the head was
of gold, and all the way down the body of that image that Nebuchadnezzar
had set up, all these stones, all the way down to the feet
made of clay, and then, Daniel in that prophecy said that there
was this stone that was cut out without hands and it smashed
the entire image. And the fulfillment of that prophecy
that Daniel spoke of would be that Jesus Christ would be set
up and his kingdom would be a kingdom that would replace all other
kingdoms and his kingdom would rule, and this is the way it's
spoken of in Daniel chapter 2, he says, In the days of these
kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall
never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people,
but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms,
and it shall stand forever." So Haggai prophesies of a time
when God shakes not only earth but heaven. The old covenant
given by God at Sinai through Moses established a law that
people had to keep in order to be blessed by God and avoid damnation. It was all about an earthly system
of worship. The new kingdom, which is the
eternal kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, was set up when Jesus
Christ rose from the dead and took heaven's throne and sent
his gospel into the world to build his church and the gates
of hell would not prevail against it. No one can resist the rule
of Christ. No one in that kingdom can resist
the rule of Christ when the gospel comes to them in power and brings
them into that kingdom, translating them out of death and the kingdom
of Satan into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Now that's the
setting. Earth's foundations have been
shaken. The old covenant has been done
away. In Hebrews, it was passing away.
At the close of the book of Hebrews, it was done away. Christ was
on the throne. No more were animal sacrifices
to be offered. Priests on earth were done away.
All of the feast days were done away, and the Sabbaths. Everything
now has to do with the new covenant in Christ's blood. The Church
of God, established by the Spirit of God, through the preaching
of the Gospel, the rod of His strength, sent out of Zion, through
the ministers of the Gospel, commissioned by Christ to declare
this. This is the way God speaks today,
through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who finished
the will of God, was seated on heaven's throne, and now has
his people brought to him. Do you see the picture? In Psalm 19, which we didn't
get a chance to go through this week on Thursday night, it says,
it speaks about creation, how God speaks to creation. It talks
about the law and all these things. It's really talking about the
the Church of Christ and the Gospel of Christ in this world. This is the way God speaks. This
is the way God converts sinners. This is the way that sinners
are brought to Him and learn the fear of the Lord. Okay? So I'm giving you this really
in a thumbnail sketch in order so that we can appreciate what's
being said in Hebrews here in chapter 12. Going back to Hebrews
chapter 12, he says in verse 27, and this word yet once more
signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of
things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken
may remain. Up until that time in history,
all the people of earth knew was the worship of God in Jerusalem. They did not know God other than
through the revelation God gave to them through the Jews. I mean,
there were cases of exception. And even that worship of God,
they couldn't see the true, through the shadows, they couldn't see
the truth until Christ actually came and fulfilled it, unless
God made it known that it's all pointing to Christ. which he
did in those who truly believed. But on the whole, it was hid
until the gospel was sent by Christ through his apostles into
the world, and it is still being sent today. Since the incarnation
of Christ, since the death of Christ on the cross, and his
resurrection, and his ascension, and now his enthronement on heaven's
throne, the gospel has been going forth, and his kingdom will not
end. At the end of time, Christ will
come in his own person with his holy angels and he will gather
his people from the four winds and then they will be revealed
openly as the children of God and all the kingdoms of this
world will be shown to be under his rule in order that he might
be all glorious throughout time and throughout eternity. And
so he says here in verse 28, notice, Wherefore, we receiving
a kingdom which cannot be moved and will not end, what is the
exhortation here? He's concluding everything that
went before about Christ fulfilling the Old Testament in the law
and the prophets and in the Psalms. in his sacrifice of himself to
God for our sins, to deliver us from the kingdom of Satan,
to bring us to God by his own precious blood. We have full
access to God. We're made holy in his blood.
We have peace by the blood of Jesus. And all of us together
now, as the children of God, are to learn this. Notice he says, a kingdom which
cannot be moved, let us have grace. whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a
consuming fire." He's saying now, he's speaking to us as children,
children who belong to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, an
eternal kingdom established on the ground of his shed blood
and his obedience. We are clothed in his righteousness.
We're made children by his work, by his spirit. through the gospel
preached to us, because of his resurrection, all these things
we have established and can establish through what we read in the New
Testament. And so he says, let us have grace. It's all about God's grace to
us. Grace is the way we are saved
from first to last. We learn of God's grace to us
in the Gospel of Christ. We see God's grace to us in the
Gospel of Christ. Everything is of grace, first
to last. We cannot come to God any other
way, and so it's by grace alone. And if we attempt to come in
some way that adds to what Christ has done, that brings something
of our own, like those men in Matthew chapter 7 who stand before
Christ in the day of judgment and say, Lord, Lord, haven't
we prophesied in your name, cast out devils in your name, and
done many wonderful works in your name? And Jesus says, I
never knew you. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity. But here he talks about grace,
because by God's grace, Christ made a new covenant in which
we are made the children of God through his shed blood. We're
made holy. We're raised from the dead. His
spirit is sent into us so that we might live and be born of
God, adopted and given his spirit to know these things, the truth
of the gospel, and believe him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
These are all the things of the New Covenant. God's speaking
to us as children. He says, now, let us have grace. We need grace in order to serve
God according to grace, in order to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is not about our own personal worthiness or our
own ability. It's about God's grace. And so
he tells us this, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Notice, how are we
to serve God? With reverence and with godly
fear. And here's where I want to take
you back to Psalm 34. Look at Psalm 34, because here
is one of my texts of scripture that to me is most precious.
I remember reading this years ago for the first time. And I
didn't understand it then, but I've gained some more insight
into it as through the years and through the preaching of
the gospel, I've begun to understand it a little bit more. Notice
in Psalm chapter 34. In Psalm 34, it's David speaking. He says in the very beginning
of the psalm, before verse one, that this is a psalm of David
when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him
away and he departed. So, the psalm was written by
King David before he was king in Israel. David was, given grace by God to kill Goliath,
remember, and deliver Israel from the Philistines. But then
King Saul envied David and pursued him to death. And finally David
fled from the land of Judah, from the land of Israel to the
land of the Philistines. And he came to stay in the city
of Gath, which was actually the city where Goliath had lived
before David killed him. And the king of this city was
called Achish. And this is where David is when
he gives this psalm. And notice in verse 11, he says,
actually verse nine, oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints, for
there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do
lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not
want any good thing. And here, look at verse 11, come
ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. And I want to consider this verse
with you in light of Hebrews chapter 12, where it says to
us, in light of all that Christ has accomplished in the kingdom
that we are now in by the grace of God through the preaching
of the gospel, to know these things in our heart and to trust
Christ for everything, that we might have grace to serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Notice what he says
here. Come, you children, hearken to me. I will teach you the fear
of the Lord." I have three questions here. Who is the one who is speaking
here? When he says, come ye children,
who is the one speaking? The second question is, what
is the fear of the Lord? And the third question is, who
are the children that he's speaking to? So, in this psalm, historically,
as I mentioned, we know that this was speaking about David's
experience when he ran from Saul and hid in the city of Gath,
which was the city of Goliath. David arose, it says in In 1 Samuel chapter 21, it says,
David arose and he fled that day for fear of Saul, and he
went to Achish the king of Gath, and the servants of Achish said
to him, their king, is not this David the king of the land? Did
they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying Saul
has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands? And David
laid up these words in his heart and was sore afraid of Achish
the king of Gath, and he changed his behavior before them, And
he pretended, or it says feigned, he pretended himself mad in their
hands, and he scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and he let
his spit, his spittle, fall down on his beard. So David acted
like he was a person out of his mind, and he made himself in
the eyes of the Philistines, in the eyes of the children of
this city, a reproach. in the eyes of his enemies. That's
what King David did historically in this psalm. And that's why
he says here in verse 11, come ye children, hearken unto me,
I will teach you the fear of the Lord. So imagine what it
was like for David to be brought so low. God had given him victory
over all of the army of the Philistines with that slingshot, remember?
slang it, and it killed Goliath. He cut off Goliath's head. All
of the army was defeated. But now, running from Saul, being
pursued like a criminal, David acted like he was crazy. He made
himself look foolish in the eyes of his enemies. So it was a reproach
to him. The Philistines didn't trust
David. That's why they spoke to the king, King Achish, and
were suspicious of him. And they had a good reason to
be suspicious, because they knew that David was a powerful enemy,
that he could kill them. And so it says, the servants
of Achish said to the king, Achish, isn't this David the king of
the land? Didn't they sing one to another of him in dances,
saying Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands,
or his ten thousands? And so the men of Gath told their
king how that the women of Israel had sung about David, how he
had killed thousands of them, and David David heard the servants
of Achish telling their king this about him, and that's why
he was afraid for his life, that's why he let his saliva drool,
his spit just run down his beard and scratch like he had no control
over his body, and his mind was messed up, and so That's why
he did these things, because he was afraid when he heard them
speak to the king about him. How would he be able to hide
from Saul and not be killed by these Philistines? He thought
he could do that by pretending to be a crazy man. And no doubt,
he acted that way, and the city, the children of this city would
have seen him and mocked him as a crazy man, like children
do. Now, consider that in light of this verse in Psalm 34 11.
while the children were undoubtedly mocking him. David perhaps thought
this, do you think I am crazy? Do you think I'm mad? Listen
to me. I will teach you the beginning
of wisdom. I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. Think about David now. He looks
like a fool. He acts like a fool. The children
are around him and he says these words, come you children, Harken
unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord, which we
know is the beginning of wisdom. They thought he was a fool, and
he says, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What was he
to his enemies and the eyes of his enemies? A complete reproach,
a crazy man. So here's the question. Who is
it that's speaking here in Psalm 34? Well, the fact of the matter
is, this was a prophecy by King David. The entire events of his
life were but just a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. When
he says these words, it's really in prophecy speaking the words
Jesus Christ would speak. He's the one who says, come you
children, hearken to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
And he is the one who under the reproach of his enemies, because
they considered him to be a fool, said these things that I will
teach the one you call a fool, in my apparent and outward foolishness,
is the way I will teach you the beginning of wisdom, you see?
So in all this psalm, it's the psalm of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the one who was hounded to death and mocked by his enemies
for his people. He says in Psalm 69, he was the
one who was the reproach of drunkards according to the will of God
in order that he might save his people from their sins. It was
the Lord Jesus Christ who was hated by men who did not trust
him because he had the power to destroy their lives or to
save them. And they did not want to submit
to him. It was Christ who bore our sins and therefore was reproached
and appeared to be foolish and weak. And yet by his wisdom makes
us know the fear of the Lord. This is the wisdom of God. This
is the way God teaches us the fear of the Lord. And so the
ones who who put Christ to death and hated and persecuted him,
he called to them. The Lord Jesus Christ, in the
prophecy, calls to those who persecuted him, who looked upon
him with disdain. And he says to them, come, ye
children, hearken unto me. I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. He promises to teach them the fear of the Lord. And
no one who submits to his instruction need fear, therefore, because
in the true fear of the Lord, which is spoken of in Hebrews
chapter 12, that we are to serve God with reverence and godly
fear, that fear, the true fear of the Lord, removes all other
fears. Remember in Hebrews chapter 2
how it says that the devil through fear of death held men under
bondage, but the Lord Jesus Christ came and he liberated, he set
free those who were under that fear of death that the devil
inflicted upon their minds. because they knew only the condemnation
of God against them for their sins. But Jesus Christ, by shedding
his own blood, removed the fear of death because he brought in
the truth that by God's grace he would save his people through
his own offering and sacrifice of himself to remove their sins.
He takes away the condemnation and the wrath of God against
us, how? By his blood, the propitiation
of himself. He offered himself to God, that
was satisfaction to God's justice, it removed God's wrath from us,
therefore the fear of death is removed. So this is the way the Lord Jesus
Christ is able to teach the true fear of God. If you look at 1
John chapter 4, you see this. It's gloriously set forth here. Remember, Hebrews chapter 12
and all the book of Hebrews is talking to the children, the
sons of God. And notice in Hebrews chapter,
I mean 1 John chapter 4, he says in 1 John chapter 4 in verse
9, in this was manifested the love of God toward us because
that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might
live through him. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Okay, so God the Father sent
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because of His love. What did He do? What was the
love of God? What did God's love accomplish
in sending His Son? He sent His Son that we might
live through Him. He sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. This is the love of God towards
His people. Because He sent Christ to be
the propitiation for our sins, God removed our sins from us,
removed His wrath against us because of our sins. He clothed
us in that spotless righteousness of Christ, which was His obedience
in shedding His blood. His blood removed our sins and
washed us. His righteousness clothed us. Now, having been made holy before
God by the blood and righteousness of Christ, God sends His Spirit
into our hearts. so that He makes us His sons
by new birth, and we're made alive, that we might live by
Him, through His propitiating blood. Do you see that? It's all out of the love of God. Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God, by the blood of Christ, by His Spirit given to
us, having been justified by His blood. Okay? So that's 1
John 4, verses 9 and 10. And notice verse 16 of 1 John
4. He says, and we have known and
believed the love that God has to us. Okay, so this love that
God had to us was the love that sent Christ into the world, appointed
him and made him the propitiation for our sins, then sent his spirit
to birth us as his sons, because he had adopted us as sons, and
now he says, now we have known that. At Christ's coming, God
made propitiation for our sins in his blood. But now he sends
his spirit that we might know the love of God. He says in verse
16, we have known and believed the love that God has to us.
Notice he goes on in 1 John 4, 16. God is love. And he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God, and God in him. All right, the Spirit of God
is in us, and we are in him. Verse 17, herein is our love
made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.
How is our love perfected? Well, it's perfected, the result
of our love being perfected is that we have boldness in the
day of judgment. Notice he says, because as he
is, so are we in this world. When we understand the gospel
by the Spirit of God giving us life and faith in Christ, we
see that Christ Our propitiation has made full access. Everything is by His blood. God
considers Him alone and blesses us with salvation and eternal
life and eternal glory and sonship and everything. because of his
precious blood shed for us, because he gave himself for our sins.
So the love of God is perfected in us when we see the love of
God in Christ and that God has made Christ everything for us. He goes on, he says in verse
18, there is no fear in love, and this is where I'm driving
to, the fear of God, the true fear of God. It removes all other
fears. Verse 18, there is no fear in
love, but perfect love, God's love in Christ, casts out fear,
because fear hath torment. The fear of God that is ours
before faith comes, before God gives us faith in Christ, that's
the fear of torment. That's the fear of the old covenant. That's the fear that the children
of Israel felt when they saw the mountain on fire and smoking
and God saying, don't come near, don't look, and don't touch. That's the fear that Moses felt.
That's the fear of a works religion. That's the fear of being a guilty
sinner before an angry God who's just and holy. But the true fear
of God comes only by understanding and knowing the love of God in
Christ that removes our sins and brings us to God by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that fear, that true fear
of God, removes this other fear, the fear of torment. He says,
he that feareth is not made perfect in love, and we love him because
he first loved us. All right, so let's review this.
Who is the one in Psalm 34 that says, come ye children, hearken
unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord? It's the Lord
Jesus Christ, when he was considered a reproach by his enemies, and
even by us. He speaks to us in comforting
tones that He will come and teach us the true fear of God, the
fear that is the beginning of wisdom when we see that God's
love to us is revealed in His own death by which He removed
our sins and removed the wrath of God from us. And so that the
true fear of God is this fear, this fear that a child naturally
has for his father, a fear of respect, a fear of trust, a fear
of love, so that the child doesn't fear his father even when his
father is applying discipline to him, But his child can trust
his father knowing that because of his relationship of a son
to his father and his father's love for him, that discipline
comes to him to bring him closer, to cause him to follow Christ,
to see Christ, to see God's love to us in Christ, and to have
confidence even in the day of judgment because all of our confidence
is in the Lord Jesus Christ and not in ourselves. And so we can
hear in the prophecy here, come you children, who are the children
spoken to here? All those who hear the gospel,
adopted before the foundation of the world by God the Father,
and made sons of God by Jesus Christ. In his redeeming blood,
he took away our sins, the propitiation for our sins. He then sent His
Spirit that we might know our sonship. He gave us life and
faith, and now we call God our Father. We are to serve Him in
reverence and in godly fear. In this world, in the life we
now live, Christ sits on heaven's throne. The kingdom we have received
is an everlasting kingdom. The rule in this kingdom is by
our king, Christ Jesus, and by the gospel of his grace. That's
the gospel that overcame our fear and gave us life from the
dead when it was preached to us, and this is Christ himself
speaking from heaven by his spirit through his word in our life.
That's how important, that's how climactic this place in scripture
is. It's about the reign and rule
of Christ, the sovereign of the universe, who took the case of
his people as his own case, answered God for them in his own blood,
brought them near, made them holy, set them at peace with
God, rewarded them with all the blessings God gave to him as
the king, and subdued their enemies. Now we're to serve God with reverence
and godly fear. In Haggai's prophecy, the children
of Judah had left off building the temple. They had gone back
to their jobs, gone back to the importance of building homes
and enriching themselves and planting crops. They had made
the worship of God unimportant because they only lived for their
present. And in Hebrews, God is correcting
those believing Jews who were tempted to go back to the law
and trust their works. No. Let me speak to you some
sobering words. If you refuse him who speaks
from heaven, How much less hope do you have compared to those
who refused him who spake on earth? God then shook the earth,
but now he has promised he's going to shake not only earth,
but heaven. Throughout the New Testament, Christ on the throne
is shaking heaven and earth. He's dislocating every kingdom. His kingdom is being established.
His church is being built. His people are being brought
in by His Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. They
are looking to Christ. They are walking in this fear
of the Lord, trusting Him as the children of God, yielding
worship to Him out of a glad heart. He has taught them the
fear of the Lord, that fear that trusts God because of the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It removes all other fears, removes
the torment of our guilty conscience, that fear that causes us to hide
and brings us near. We have access to the throne
of grace. And all this is being piled up
at the end of the book of Hebrews to bring us to see what we have
received, this kingdom we've received, how we're to serve
God, to try to establish ourselves before God, not to establish
ourselves in this world, not to establish a fiefdom here. No, we live for glory. We're
pilgrims and strangers in this world. We're living on Christ
and Him crucified. We serve the Lord whose kingdom
has no end, who rules over all. And so we see this even in these
few verses of Hebrews. The fulfillment of the prophecy
of Haggai, Christ building His kingdom from His incarnation
to His second return, God's church is going to be established. His
people will be saved. Christ will be made all glorious
and they will be given eternal life and everything with Him. Isn't it glorious? The sight
could not be greater and we're encouraged with the strongest,
not only encouragement, but even warning that if we leave Christ
for this world, if we leave Christ for works religion, the philosophies
of this world, if we lose sight of the eternal promises of God
in Christ, then we've forfeited everything. We're like Esau.
profane people who give up eternal glory and eternal inheritance
in Christ for a morsel of food. We don't want that, do we? What's
the solution? Hebrews chapter 12, let us have
grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and
godly fear. That's what we want. We need
grace, don't we? We need grace to look to Christ. This is the race. This is the
struggle. This is the sin that so easily
beset us, is this temptation to leave Christ for something
else. And may God give us grace. to
be as those children in that ungodly heathen city of Gath,
where even David in prophecy speaks under his reproach, come
ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. Let us hear the Lord Jesus Christ in his sufferings
and death speaking to us in the gospel, calling us to him who
suffered reproach for our sins, to come to him and learn the
true fear of the Lord, that it's in what he did on the cross.
Perfect love casts out fear. And where there's fear, there's
torment. In Psalm 130, verse 4, it says, Lord, if you mark
iniquities, who could stand? But there is, what? Forgiveness
with thee. by the blood of Jesus that thou
mayest be feared. That's the way we fear God. Psalm
86, it says, unite my heart to fear thy name. May we learn from
Christ himself the true fear of God and trust God as our father
with no torment of a guilty conscience knowing that the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanses us from all sin. And may we join together as a
people of God, called out of this world and serve God, that
through the preaching of his word in this world at this time,
Christ's church would be built up, Christ glorified and his
people brought in and added to this kingdom according to his
work and will. Let's pray. Father, we pray that
you would bless your people, bless your word. We know your
gospel is the power of God to salvation, that it makes us wise
unto salvation when we hear it, that it is the continuous, all-conquering
power of your Spirit to raise dead sinners to life, to convince
us of our sins, and to bring us into a sweet fellowship and
communion in the blood of Jesus, with God as our Father, and to
know one another in love, and to serve in this life with all
that we have, that Jesus Christ might be honored and glorified
through our lives. In his name we pray, and we ask,
Lord, that you would bless your people for his sake alone. In
Jesus' name, amen.