If you sang that from the heart,
then I believe you're a member of God's church, His family,
on earth and in heaven. And if you sang that from the
heart, tears shall fall, my prayers
ascend, the highest joys. If you sang that from the heart,
you will be in His church forever in heaven. You will be. The title
as announced and the subject that we find here is coming to
church. It's much more than meets the
eye. I hope you'll be glad you came
here tonight when you leave here. I hope you'll be glad you were
here and I hope you'll be thankful and amazed that you're a member of God's
church. Most people go or come to church for many reasons. Most of them wrong. Most people
go to church or come to church for religious services, for moral
lessons, for society, social, to be social. But God's people
come for things that are higher and things that are nobler. They
come to meet with their God. They come to worship. They come
to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. They come because He said where
two or three are gathered, I am there. That's to whom coming. They come to a cause. God is
great and greatly to be praised. We have every reason and cause
to be here because God has been merciful. So gracious. Why do we come to church? Well,
chapter 12 begins this way. We're compassed about it. We
also are compassed about it with so great a cloud of witnesses.
We believe Paul wrote this book. It's not certain, but it seems
to bear his style. He said, we also are compassed
about, surrounded by people whom God has chosen and blessed and
made a part of His church and have gone through troubles and
trials and endured great affliction and fought the good fight of
faith. Of course, chapter 11 is full
of a great cloud of witnesses. All of those people were chosen
by God. They knew God. They loved God.
They walked with God. And they went through severe
trials and endured those severe trials by His grace and fought
the good fight of faith and they all died in faith. We have a
great cloud of witnesses that prove to us and encourage us. And so, lest we faint and grow
weary How did they do this? How does anyone endure this race? Well, look in verse 2 unto Jesus,
the author. It says, the author and the finisher
of the faith. Our Lord is not only the one
who was the architect of salvation and the one who drew up the covenants
and author of it, but it says the author of the faith and the
finisher of the faith. became a man and lived by faith. And no one fought a greater battle than
him. No one had more, we're going to see, contradictions of sinners
against himself. No one had more enemies than
himself. He had nothing but enemies from
the day he was born to the day he died. But he lived by faith. He lived by faith. He's the author
and the finisher of faith. This is why, Paul, this is why
it's so important that... See, we're not going to get in
heaven so much by our faith, but by our faithful Lord. He who lived by faith. The just
shall live by His faith. And He's that just One who lived
by faith. And by virtue of His faithfulness
to God. We're going to get into glory,
he said. So he's the author and the finisher of faith. Aren't
you glad? And he that hath begun a good
work in you, he's the author. We'll finish it. So that's good
news then. They all looked to him in the
Old Testament. They all did. From Abel to Zechariah. And everybody in the New Testament.
People in the Old Testament looked to Christ who was coming. They
all knew Him. Abel knew Him. Adam spoke to Him in the garden.
They knew Him. Enoch walked with Him. No man
had seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, He had
declared it. And that's who Enoch walked with
was Christ. That's who walked in the garden
and talked to Adam. That's who Abel was accepting. That's who gave you the blueprints
of the ark. Abram, that's who stood by him on the rock. They don't want to go. Crying,
they do. The Old Testament saying, look
to him. Job, the oldest book, I know
my Redeemer lives. They look to him and we look
to him also. The one who has come and who
shall come. Alright, it says that they all
Where am I? Let me get ahead of myself. It
says, they all endured trials. Read on in verse 3. Consider
our Lord, Him, that endured such contradiction of sinners against
Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your mind. Consider
Him. Consider our blessed Lord. He's
called the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. Consider Him. what He went through for us.
Such contradiction of sinners. Lest ye be weary in faith in
your mind. Verse 4, He says, You have not
yet resisted unto blood, striving against Satan. And our Lord did. Listen to my Father's comments
on this verse in His commentary. He said, our conflict with sin
and enemies of the truth, our conflict with this world and
the trials of this life have cost us very little. We have not yet resisted unto
blood. We may yet. There's a whole cloud
of witnesses of people that did shed their blood. Our Lord certainly
did for our sin. And many did for Him. If you read Hebrews 11, they
were tortured, mocked, scourged. They actually shed their blood.
In the revelation I just read, it says the blood of the saints,
the blood of the martyrs, the blood of the prophets are all
before the Lord. And we have not yet, lest we
be weary. What are we weary from? Serving
the Lord. So this is a rebuke, isn't it? Whom the Lord loveth He chastened
at first with His Word. And then it goes on to talk about
chastening. It says, you've forgotten the exhortation, verse 5. It
speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not the chastening
of the Lord. nor faint and quit when thou
art rebuked of him. When the Lord loveth, he chasteneth
and scourgeth every son or daughter whom he receiveth. If you endure
chastening, God dealeth with you as with children." Why does
a parent chasten their child? Chastening is loving what? Correction for your faults. This is not talking about trials,
all trials of the Lord's sin. It's talking about correction.
And rebuke, that's what it said, when you're rebuked with him,
scourging. I tell you what, every whipping
my father gave me I deserved, and I didn't get as many as I
did deserve. I thought I got by with that,
or he didn't notice it, no, he was just merciful. And the Lord
has not dealt with us according to our sins. But we sure need
to be dealt with. Why? Verse 10, our fathers chastened
us for a while after their own pleasure, according to their
own wisdom. But he for our profit that we
might be partakers of his own. Be made like Christ. Be made
like Christ. So he says, verse 12, this is
in the context. In verse 11, there's no chastening
that's joyous, but it's grievous. What's sad is the Lord may chasten
us for things and we don't even know He's chastening us. That's
how ignorant we are. We need to look at things
and say, what? But it yields, if we know
it's the chastening of our Lord, Verse 11, it yields something
that's good. It's the peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them that are exercised in Chastity. Make us like His Son, who was
obedient. Obedient. That's why our parents chastened
us. Isn't that the context here? So, he says, lift up the hands
which hang down. He's not weary and well doing
or downcast and dejected. I can't do anything. Feeble knees. Make straight paths
for your feet. Don't be lame, lest that which
is lame be turned out of the way. Let it rather be healed,
that is. Paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Follow peace.
Be peaceable. Holiness. Without which no man
shall see the Lord. Look Him. Look Him. Diligent. Unto Him. Look Him. Diligent.
He goes on to say, lest any man fail of the grace of God, fall,
leave, apostatize, leave the gospel of God's grace. Is it possible? Any of us? Absolutely. Read on. That's any root of bitterness
springing up. Trouble you. Poison of bitterness
spring up and divides and causes strife and division and churches
split and friends split and many are defiled. Poison that poisons
all around. And so recognize The chasing
of our Lord. We need Him. We don't. Lest there be any fornicator.
You know, this world, that's what the world is all about.
This modern world we live in, that's what it's all about. A profane person like Esau, that
means his God was his belly. A morsel of meat, he sold his
birthright. He just sold out. Sold his soul. for a bowl of beans. It happens
all around us. Could we do that? We sure could. The afterword he would have inherited
or wish he had, the blessing, he wasn't interested in God,
he didn't want to lose the blessing. He found no place of repentance,
no way to change his mind, either the Father's mind or his own
mind. He sought it carefully with tears, he wept and cried
about it, but it did him no good. All right, now here's where we
come. Now, he says, we're not come
to Mount Sinai. He's talking about we come to
church. And he's going to go on and tell
us what this means. Thank God we're not come to Mount
Sinai, the law. Thank God we're not under the
law. Thank God we're not under the law or every one of us would
be wiped out. Compartial with the glory of
God. And we're not coming here. When
we come to this place, thank God, we're not coming here to
hear the law and to keep the law and to earn God's favor. Find out what we must do to keep
the law and earn God's favor. Do you know how many people go
to church to hear that? The Mormons. The Russellites,
that's the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Amish, the German Baptists,
you know why they go? Not to hear about Christ crucified,
but to hear about the law. What can we do to keep the law? To make ourselves holy before
God. That's where they go. Thank God that's not why we've
come. One man that was in that for a while, came here and the
Lord gave him ears to hear and made him free, free from the
law, oh, happy condition. He kept telling me and keeps
telling me how thankful he is for the freedom from that bondage
he was in, freedom. And I've come to Mount Sinai As said before, many people come
to church for moral lessons, thinking, I need to do better,
I need to start doing this or doing that, and that's fine,
but you don't come here to find out how you may live so you can
feel better about yourself. And I told you about a lady that
I spoke to one time, and I asked her why she went where she went,
and she said, the preacher makes me feel better about myself. Well, the people in the Old Testament,
they came to Mount Sinai and they said, and they got a glimpse
of the God who is a consuming fire. They got a glimpse of Him
and they were afraid, terribly afraid. They said, don't let
Him speak to us, we'll be consumed. And God said, don't let Him come
near me. Don't even let an animal come near this. This is what,
paraphrasing what He said. Even Moses trembled in fright. Look at the last line of this
chapter. How many modern Christians know
this verse? Our God is a consuming fire. How many people know that? How
many people believe that? You believe it, don't you? Now
that's not the God of the Old Testament, that's written in
the New Testament. God hasn't changed. You see why we preach
Christ and Him crucified? The whole
book of Hebrew is about Christ and Him crucified for sinners. Our God is a consuming fire. No man can approach unto Him
but by and through Christ. Our God is a consuming fire.
How can we come to God without being consumed? And all of Hebrews
tells us, not without blood. Not without blood. Alright. Now
he tells us. Now let's look at it. To whom
coming? To where we're coming? What it
means coming to church. Verses 22 through 24. Verse 22. You are come. This is the holy
brethren that are spoken to, that are written to all throughout
the Hebrews, the holy brethren, God's chosen people, the royal
generation, the holy priesthood. We are come, you are come unto
Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God. You are come
to Mount Zion. I tell you what, let's go down
to the end of this verse. Since Christ is first and last,
let's go to the last thing first, verse 24. We come to Jesus, the
mediator of the new covenant, the blood of sprinkling, that
speaketh better things than that of Abel. Why does it bring up
him last? Because he's first and he's last.
And because he saves the best for last. When we come to Him,
the mediator of the new covenant, whose blood speaketh better things
than Abel, that is the blood of a lamb, a bull or a goat,
that our Lord came with His own precious blood. Again, the whole
book of Hebrews, Romans, the whole Bible that it teaches us
to come by blood. And how blessed we are if we
know that. It's not just a slogan, not just the songs we sing, we
know, don't we? That we come unto this God who
is consuming fire by the blood of the Lamb, by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith in His person, by faith in Christ.
by faith in Christ and Him crucified, that He is the Mediator, the
Covenant Head, the New Covenant, not law but grace. And He's the
Author and the Finisher of that faith, that that Covenant were
justified by His faith. He's the Mediator. 1 Timothy
2.5. Remember this and remember where
it is. 1 Timothy 2.5. There's one God and one Mediator. There are millions of people
all over the world right now who come to mediators, who come
to what they think is the church, and they come to a priest whom
they think can go to God for them, who come even to Mary. Mary's not hearing anybody's
prayers. She's standing right there with
Mary Magdalene. Worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ,
her Redeemer and her Savior. But many still come to her, a
mediatress they call her. They actually call her a mediatress,
co-redemptress, that's what they call her. That's anti-Christ.
There's one mediator, 1 Timothy 2.5, there's one mediator between
God and men, not all men, but men, the man, Christ Jesus. He's the mediator. I like 1 John
2.1, don't you? Little children, these things
are right unto you if you sin not. Don't sin. Consequences are terrible. The reproach it brings is terrible.
The guilt, the shame, the hurt, the pain, all that. Don't sin.
And if any man has sinned, any sin,
Because all manner of sins will be free. If any man sin, we have
an Advocate with the Father. He's with the Father. He's the
Judge's Son. No, He is the Judge. Jesus Christ the Righteous. With the Father. He's the Mediator. We come to Him. He's the Mediator
between us and God. The Great High Priest to whom
coming. I wanted to get to that part. Verse 22, Now you have come to
Mount Zion, the city of the living God. We read together in Psalm
48, didn't we? Go back there, Psalm 48. Look
at it again. When you come to church, you
have come to Mount Zion. Look at it. Consider this. Mount
Zion, verse 1, God is great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. It's
called a mountain because when you come to God's church, where
Christ is, you go up. You ascend out of the miry clay
to have your feet set on a rock, don't you? Of the shifting sands
of this world to have your feet set on a rock. He takes you out
of the dung heap and sets you among princes. He takes you like
Mephibosheth out of Lodibar, a place of no bread, and has
you sit at the king's table, where your feet are covered.
Mount Zion. It's always up. Our Lord went up to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a city built on
a hill for all to see and look to. Look, let's go up to Jerusalem. Let's go up. Verse 2, beautiful for situations. In other words, you can see afar
off from His church. Can't you see things afar off?
When you're in the world, you're looking down, aren't you? You're
looking around. You're not looking up. When you
come to His Mount Zion, you're able to see things clearly, see
afar, see things for what they are. Many of you have gone, taken
a trip in an airplane, or stood on a high mountain. That's the
way we ought to view this world and things of it. From a bird's
eye view. That is from the way God sees
it. Scurrying around like ants. Why
is everybody in such a hurry? Where the finest house looks
like a toy. You can't differentiate the finest
car from a jalopy. They all look the same. Why?
Because it is. Vanity of vanities. Why would we get so worked up
about all this little stuff? Look up. Things that are higher,
things that are nobler. This you only see from Mount
Zion. This church where He takes this
Word and lifts us out of the dung heap. Mount Zion, the City
of God. Beautiful for situation. Is this
not a beautiful situation we're in? Huh? Have the lions followed you in
pleasant places? Oh boy. The joy of the whole
earth. Mount Zion. The city of the great King. The
city of God. Look at chapter 50. Chapter 50
verse 2. Out of Zion, the perfection of
beauty of God Look at chapter 87. You'll love
this. We just sang about it. Chapter
87, Psalm 87. You know how much God loves His
church? You know how much Christ loves His church? He shed His
precious blood for them. What church? This church. These people. This place. Yeah, Christ came. Shouldn't we esteem it like that?
God's foundation, verse 1, is in the holy mountains. The Lord
loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious things are spoken of the old city of God. I'll make
mention of Rahab. Verse 5, And of Zion it shall
be said, This man and that man were born there. Abel and David. The Lord shall count, verse 6,
and He righteth up the people. All of His people are born there.
Born again. Placed in His city. The city
of God, where God dwells. The city of the living God. The
city. He calls it a city because it's
a beautiful, vibrant, living gathering of people. Commune. society, that fellowship together
around what? One thing. Our precious Savior. Heavenly Jerusalem. Go back to
our text. It's called a heavenly Jerusalem. Hebrews 12 verse 22. You have come to Mount Zion of
the city of the living God in heavenly Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Have you ever been to Jerusalem? You're there. Oh, I want to go
over and see Jerusalem. Well, fine. Tell me about it
when you get back. But I don't have to go over there
to be there. People feel a certain way. I
feel, you know, I go over there, I just feel good. That's flesh. We have no confidence in the
flesh. This is heavenly Jerusalem. Heavenly. The Lord, do you consider
this a heavenly place? He's made His people to sit together
in a heavenly place. A heavenly place. Talk about
His church. Brethren, if someone does not highly esteem this,
these people, I have my doubts if they're a
member of His church. God calls His church, no matter
where it is or who it is, a heavenly plan. The city of God. His habitation, where He delights
a people that He shed His precious blood for. And so should we. Huh? So should
we. Jerusalem. Jerusalem. It's a foretaste of heavenly
Jerusalem. It's a foretaste of glory divine.
If the Spirit of God will come to us, if we are in the Spirit
on the Lord's day like John, we'll hear a voice and we'll
see glory. And we'll be so glad to be here. We'll feel so unworthy
to be here among these saints of God. We'll be so grateful
to be a part of His Blessed, heavenly Jerusalem. That's right. That's right. Jerusalem, the
name means founded peaceful. A city of peace. His church is
a city that Christ made peaceful by the blood of His cross. He
is our King. It's called the City of David.
Listen to me now. It's called the City of Peace,
founded peaceful. It's called the City of Peace
and the City of David. It was first called Jerusalem
when David became king there. How did it become the City of
David? Jerusalem. David took it. David fought for it. David battled
for it. It was in captivity to the Jebusites. It was in bondage, in captivity. And David came and captured it. He took captivity captive. And
so they called it, in his honor, the City of David. And David
said, this place is going to have peace from now on. And you know, he fought. David
was a man of war. David fought battle after battle.
He said enemies were surrounding his city. He was not about to
let it go down. And David, all of his life, until
he was 70 years old, fought these battles. so that the city and they that
dwell therein could have peace and not be brought back under
bondage. That's the church of God that Christ fought for and
captured and took captive from the God of this world and fought
that battle and won and obtained peace by the blood of his cross
and he has ordained it and he has ensured it that this city
My city, my church will have peace. And anything, and everything,
and anyone that causes any strife, He'll be with them. Peace. City of Peace. So let
us strive together, peace for peace and love. Because the Lord
has purposed it, to have peace. City of Peace. Heavenly Jerusalem. That's what Jerusalem means.
That's how it was fought. That's how it was won. And, verse
22, to an innumerable company of angels. Right now, I'm not making this
up. I'm telling you what God's Word
says. Right now, there are angels surrounding
this place. I'm not being dramatic. I'm not
being whatever. That's what God's Word says.
Do you remember Elijah's servant? That he went outside and he saw
all his enemies and he was fretting and fearful. And he came back
in and said, Master, oh, we're a goner. And he said, Lord, open
the young man's eyes. And he said, young man, go outside
and look again. Look up this time. Look higher.
Look much higher what you see here on earth. Look much higher.
And he saw that hills were surrounded with chariots of fire and angels. And the prophet said, Son, they
that are with us are more than they that be against us. And
I remind you this, Church of God, if God be for us, who can be against us? So when
you go out of this place, don't look down. You'll fret. Look
up. Look up. Innumerable company
of angels. One angel, one of which is going
to be sent to destroy a quarter of this earth. And I have to
believe this has something to do with our brethren who have
gone before us, because every one of God's people, our Lord
said, they are as the angels, didn't He? All of God's people
are like angels. They have no sin. They have no
bondage. They have no bounds. They're
not earthy anymore, not bound by this earth. They've mounted
up as on wings of eagles. No longer worms. No longer looking through a glass
dimly, but face to face with the Lord. on the Isle of Patmos
twice fell before the angel. Didn't he? An angel was sent
to show him these things. And he fell down and worshipped
him. And the angel said, See thou do it not, I am of your
brethren and them that have the gospel and of the prophets. And
then another time he did it again, fell down before the one and
showed him these things, an angel, and he said, don't, he said,
worship God, don't worship me. He said, I'm of your brethren.
Who was it? It might have been his brother James. He didn't
recognize him. James was killed, the first one,
wasn't he? And they all grieved. He's like an angel now. Like
an angel. So are our departed brethren,
like the angel. innumerable, innumerable company. I thought about this innumerable
company. Why not me? Why not you? But I'm too sinful. Ask the thief on the cross if
he thinks you're too sinful. Ask Mary Magdalene if she thinks
you're too sinful. She'll tell you. Where sin abounded,
grace did much more, man. Verse 23, "...you have come to
the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn." The General
Assembly. Now the Lord, this is general, not particular. The
Lord has His local churches, particular people in a particular
location, assembled by the Spirit of God. And if you're joined
to that local body, the Lord has given you an angel. Isn't
that what He called them? In every church, in Ephesus,
in Philippi, and Laodicea, and Sardis, and Thyatira, do you
know what they call it? It's the angel. It's a messenger is what it is,
but he's given you one, and my, my. It's a blessed privilege to be
a part of a local, a local particular church, a member of a local church. There's some people right now
listening to this, right now, who wish they could be a member
of this church right here. In fact, there's a man that wants
to move here. He's a long way off. And he said,
Wednesday and Sunday, it's the highlight of my week, how I wish
I could be there. Another woman who's under a man
who doesn't love her and doesn't love the gospel. She says, how
I wish I could be with you people. What do you think of that? It's a blessed privilege to be
a member of this journey. This is a heavenly plan. This is God's particular journey.
That Christ shed his precious blood for them. And that's what
we ought to do. Her walls before me stand, dear
as the apple of my eye, and graven upon thy hand. Talk about people, each and every
one. His people. Precious people. Precious people. Blessed privilege.
But here he's talking about the general assembly. Because when
the church meets, they all meet together. You know that? When the church meets on earth,
they're meeting in heaven. In fact, when we quit meeting,
they're still meeting. They never quit assembling. They never quit
meeting. We're going to go to our respective places, but their
rest is one. And all they do is worship with
a perfect heart. Perfect body is perfect. Sinless
body. The church in heaven. Glorified
church. They meet always, and we meet
with them. And we sing that song, Mystic
Sweet Communion with those whose rest is won. They're doing what
we're doing right now, except more perfectly. Yes, they are. Singing the songs of Zion, the
song of Moses, worshiping the Lamb that had been slain, loving
the assembly, loving the church, Grateful to be a part of it?
The General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn. The General
Assembly, that means they've been assembled by someone, and
that someone is the Lord God. And the Church of the Firstborn. Why is it called that? Because
Christ is the Firstborn from the dead. Our Lord is the Head
of the Church, the Firstborn from the dead. He said, I am
He that was dead, but I live. And all of us shall die too.
These all died in faith, in Hebrews 11. And so shall we, unless the
Lord come. But no, we won't die. Because
they didn't die either, really. They slept. Because Christ said,
because I live, you shall live also. He's firstborn from the
dead, and all those that are in Christ, they didn't die, they
just went to glory with Him. Firstborn from the dead. Read
on. And we've come to, whose names
are written in heaven. I like that. Whose names are
written in heaven. Think about that. Whose names
are written in heaven. Disciples came back one day,
because they were so excited that the devils were subject
unto them. They were able to do miracles. And the Lord said,
don't rejoice over that. Rejoice that your names are written
in heaven. Men and women like to boast and
brag about being members of exclusive places, don't they? Well, I went
to Harvard, Yale. I'm one of the alumni of Yale,
class of 64. Oh, really? Well, phew. God's people's names are written
in heaven. It won't matter where you went
to school. Your name is written in heaven. Nobody on earth knows
you. It doesn't matter. Because the
only thing that matters is whose praise is of God, not men. Known and loved by God, the judge
of the whole earth. That's what it says in verse
23. The judge of the whole earth. All the earth. The judge of all
the earth. And all shall stand before the
judgment throne of God's people. We'll be seated. You know what? We'll be seated. Already are. Seated together with Him in the
heavenly, when the Lord judges and has them cast out. Oh my,
God's people will be seated and are seated. And look at this,
to the spirits of just men make perfect. The spirits of just
men. Give me a few more minutes, would
you? To the spirits, you come to the
spirits. It says innumerable company of
angels. You come to the spirits of just
men. We're entered into a spiritual
world. It's just so. The spirits, now
I think this means a couple of things, and my pastor brought
this out well, that the spiritual men, His church, what God's people
are, these people are spiritual people of true sin. They're not
taken up with, and God is not their belly, but they're spiritually
minded at the mind of Christ. Their affections set on things
above. That's who you come and join
with, the people that are truly, not this, oh, he's so spiritual.
You know, it's a person that's always their head's in the clouds.
No! But people that worship God and worship Christ in whom the
Holy Spirit has given an understanding to know Him that's true, they
worship Christ. That's what it means to be in
the Spirit, a spiritual person, heavenly-minded, Christ-minded.
Things set upon Him. Spirits of men. Just men. Make perfect. You can look at
that two ways. The spirits of just men, they're
just men, but they're made perfect in Christ. Or the spirits of
just men, justified by His grace, justified by His blood, made
perfect in Christ. And you can look at it this way,
to those that are now in the spiritual world, We have come. They're with us. They're with us. Now, I don't mean this like the
world. Everybody likes to tell, oh, my dad's looking down on
me, he's smiling on me, he's with me now, I can feel his presence.
No. But this says, we have come to the spirits of just men made
perfect. And we don't know what our brothers
and sisters in glory are aware of down here, do we? I know what the scripture says
though, that we'll know as we've been known. Our Lord can look upon this place
without being affected by it, you know. With perfect mind and
perfect understanding, you can see things as they really are.
Those, you know, no fear, no sorrow, no worry. Great expectation. All positive. Knowing absolutely it's all good,
that it's all coming together according to this person. Knowing,
seeing it all unfolding. You could look at it without
worry and fear, couldn't you? Huh? If they are aware of what's
going on here. Do you know the angel? There's
a scripture that says the angels That the church, the truth is
known by the angels, which things the angels desire to look into.
It's revealed to them by the church. You know what? John,
you know those scriptures, don't you? Wish I'd have written it
down. Which things are revealed by the church and the angels
desire to look into. And where people are meeting
and worshipping Christ, they're with us. Worshipping. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm not saying any... I'm speaking things too wonderful
for me, but it's so, it's what it says here, the spirits of
just men made perfect. If, if, if they are aware of
what is going on here, if, if, if, if they are, I don't know.
I don't know. But just imagine if they are.
Just imagine their conversation. The poor brethren down there
are so worried. They really didn't worry. Wait
till they see what we see. Wait till they see who we see. Oh, won't it be wonderful when
they come? Won't it be wonderful, Brother
Moses, when they come? And then one day the announcement
is going to be made, because the Lord is going to come with
all His saints. Doesn't that say that? It's going
to come with all these saints and one day the announcement
is going to be made in heaven. It's time! Let's go get our revenue! I'm not making this up. Are you just coming to church? Are
we just coming to church? Do you hear me? Your mother is
perfect, hell no. If you're in Christ, I don't
know if she knows this or not, but wait till she comes. Oh my! Wait till she sees who
I'm seeing. Won't it be wonderful? So we come to his church, Mount
Zion. City of the Living God, the Heavenly
Jerusalem, innumerable company of angels, the General Assembly,
Church of the Firstborn, names written in heaven, enrolled in
glory, the God, the Judge of all the earth, the spirits of
just men made perfect, to the Lord Jesus, Jesus the mediator
of the New Covenant, the blood of sprinkling, covered by the
blood that speaketh better things than April. Read on with me and
we'll close. See that you refuse not Him that
speaketh, If they escape not, who refuse him that spake on
earth? Talking about Moses, talking about the prophets. Much more
shall not we escape. We turn away from him that speaketh
from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth, but now he's
promised in Haggai. Yet once more I shake not the
earth only, but also heaven. And this word, this scripture,
yet once more, that signifieth the removing of those things
that are shaken. as if the things that are made,
that is, Peter said, earth and the works thereof shall be burned
up, everything in it, that those things which cannot
be shaken, an immovable city may remain. Wherefore, we
receiving the kingdom put into that glorious kingdom that cannot
be moved, let us have grace, hold fast, Hold fast, be thankful
for, strive together for, fight for, whereby we may serve God. We
only serve Him by serving His people, you know that? And acceptably,
with reverence, respect, and godly fear, for our God is a
consuming fire. Consuming fire. Alright, stand
with me. Our God in heaven, how we thank
You for Your blessed Word. It is Your voice, it is how You
speak, it is how You approve, rebuke. We need it. Chasten, exhort, correct, admonish,
comfort, encourage, embolden, lift us up, teach us, guide us,
direct us. hedge us about, restrain us,
constrain us, Your Word, how we thank You for it. Oh, these
blessed promises of truth. This is the truth, O Lord. This is the truth. This is not
a cunningly devised fable, but this is the truth. Our God has
written for us to lay hold of, to live by faith, O Lord. words come back to our mind throughout
this week. We're going to leave this place
and go out into the muck and the mire that is this world.
And we ask, O Lord, that you would take this word and cheer
us and lift us, cause us to look up, because our redemption draweth
nigh. And in Christ's name we've met
here tonight. Amen.