Let's go ahead and read the whole
text, chapter 12, verse 12 through the end of the chapter. He says,
Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, the feeble knees,
and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame
be turned out of the way. And let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and
holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. looking diligently,
lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness
springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest
there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel
of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward,
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected,
for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully,
with tears. Do you not come unto the mount
that might be touched, that burned with fire, nor unto blackness
and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the
voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the
word should not be spoken to them any more, for they could
not endure that which was commanded And if so much as a beast should
touch the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with
a dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. But ye are come unto Mount Sion
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
unto an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.
to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh, for if they escaped not who refused him that spake
on earth, much more shall not we escape. if we turn away from
him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth,
but now he 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. We receiving 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." Consuming fire. There is so much here. Words of life,
these words, gospel, words of warning, words of comfort from
our all-wise Heavenly Father, words of reproof, rebuke, correction,
instruction. He says, he begins in verse 12,
saying, lift up the hands that hang down. Lift them up in praise. It calls you down and will lift you up. Lift them up in service. Lift
up the hand. Lift up the knees that are bowed
down and bent and buckled under you, ready to fall. Lift them
up. Feet, he says, verse 13, make
straight paths for your feet. Walk, that is, by faith. Look into Christ. Walk by faith. He'd hear, walk, walk, he said. All these examples we've been
looking at are exhortations to us to walk by faith. You know,
we exercise this faith so very little. You know that? We really don't exercise it very
much. The Lord is so gracious and merciful
to us. We're called on to exercise this
faith. I remember reading one time a
woman who walked every day. She was in her 90s, late 90s,
and she walked every day. And someone asked her about that,
and she said, well, I'm afraid if I don't use these legs, I
won't be able to use them. Faith must be exercised. Bodily exercise profits a little. But godliness is profitable in
all things. Faith. We need to walk by faith. Looking diligently. Looking to
the Lord. Without whom we can do nothing.
Without looking to Him, we'll stumble and fall. Looking to
the end. Looking. We have here no continuing
city. We're looking where we're going. To the prize. That's where we're
going. the prize, the high calling of
God in Christ. Looking diligently, give diligence
to make your calling and election sure, lest any, he says, fall
of the grace of God. Many have left. Some have left our little congregation,
right? Many all over have left. They
have left the gospel of God's grace. And he goes on to say,
and these are warning signs, unless any root of bitterness
springing up trouble you. Root of bitterness. Bitter. If there's any bitterness
toward anybody in the church, toward any brother or especially
the preacher, it will trouble you. It will greatly. Look at it, verse 15, springing
up. That's always there. It will
trouble you greatly and many, he says, will be defiled. We
defile many. Verse 16, lest there be any fornicator. Apostasy, that is, leaving the
gospel, which begins with this root of bitterness. will end
up in open sin. Always does. Open sin. Lest there be any profane person.
Profane. I looked the word up. It talks about a threshold. Crossing a threshold. In other
words, you go over the line. It's too far. Can't come back. That's what
that means. too far. He sold his birthright,
meaning he showed that he had no care whatsoever for the things
of God, because God was his belly. What did he sell it for? A morsel
of meat. And if we consider everything
in this world wisely, we will see that it's nothing more than
a morsel of meat. It goes in and is cast out. Everything
is like dung. That's what Paul said, didn't
he? These things I thought were gain?
Dung. It all rots and just passes away,
doesn't it? It's of no real value. Vanity
of vanity. So whatever or whoever, for that
matter, we would go after and trade for the Lord Jesus Christ
for eternal life is a bad trade. Lose your soul. One morsel of
meat. Birthright. My, my. Verse 17. It says, You know how that Esau
afterward, he would have inherited the blessing, or that is, he
looked for it, he wanted it, but was rejected. Our Lord gave
that story of how He said, Many will say to me that day, Lord,
Lord, many will seek to enter in, He said. Many, when it's
all over. As you might imagine, those who
were on the outside of Noah's Ark were clamoring to get in. And our Lord said, when once
the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, no more
mercy. And everyone will be clamoring. But today is the day of salvation. That's why it says today is the
day of salvation. The door of the ark is open while
the gospel is being preached. Those who are entering, keep
coming. Keep coming. In returning and
rest, you'll be saved, he said. Keep coming. Keep coming to hear
the gospel. Because in the end, there's no
place of repentance. Verse 17. No way to change his
mind. No way to change God's mind. Esau wanted to change his father
Isaac's mind. He couldn't do it. He said, those
I've blessed, I've blessed. Those I've cursed, I've cursed. And Esau really couldn't change
his own mind. He wasn't sorry for what he'd
done. He was sorry for what he'd lost. And everybody is. Repentance, truly godly sorrow,
is sorrow for what we are and what we've done, not what we
lose. He says he sought it carefully
with tears. You don't seek repentance carefully.
In other words, plan it and contrive it, and I'll do this, if I do
this, if I turn on the tears, that will really impress him. That's the gift of God. Repentance
is a gift of God. It's either there or it's not.
So these are warning signs. He says, now you not come to
the mount that might be touched, that is, a physical mountain
that burns with fire, nor blackness or darkness and tempest, but
read on. And the sound of a trumpet, the
voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated Moses that
the word should not be spoken to them any more. Don't let him
speak to us, they said. They couldn't endure that which
was commanded." So severe was the law and the word, so strict. And he said, as much as a beast
would touch the mountain, it would be stoned or thrust through
with a dart. And so terrible, even Moses said,
I exceedingly fear and quake. But to God's people, to professing
believers anyway, he says, you've come to Mount Zion. Not Mount
Sinai. Mount Zion. And the last verse
in this chapter says, Our God is a consuming fire. How ignorant is our generation
of the living and the true God. How so very ignorant. And in
the Old Testament, Malachi 3, verse 6, one of the last things
he said before there was 400 years of silence, God who spoke
in sundry times in diverse matters unto the fathers by the prophet,
one of the last things he said was, I am the Lord, I change
not. He said, our God is a consuming
fire. Men think God was this way in the Old Testament. But
he's different in the new. Oh no. The same God. Jesus Christ. The same. Yesterday. Today. Forever. Christ is this
God. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking here about the Jews,
the Israelites, professing people of God. were large millions who professed
to be, who seemed to be, the people of God. Okay? They knew the truth in their
heads anyway. God revealed the oracles and
so forth to them. What advantage had the Jews?
Many. And there were many professing. But not all Israel, or of Israel. So here's the warning. This is
given up. And go back to Exodus 19. We're going to look at this story. This is the story of them coming
to the mount right before chapter 20 when the law was being given,
beginning with the Ten Commandments, but not ending there. But he
says, Our God is consuming fire. And so many of the Israelites
were drawing near with their lips. The scripture says that
these people draw near with their lips. Their hearts are far from
them. A warning, dire warning, that you're not playing with
fire. That's the warning here. We're
not to play with God's law. We're not to play with religion.
We're not to come, like so many of them did, in duty, out of
habit, or for show. So many people do it for show,
like the Pharisee. If we do, we're playing with
fire. Our God is a consuming fire.
And he goes on to say, someday, he's going to burn it up, burn
it up. And he said, many will say unto
me on that day, well, we've done this, we've done that. He said,
your workers have been there. I never knew you. That's how
serious this is. When I say words of life, if
we hear this and heed this, we'll live. We'll live. And we'll look
to Him who is life, who is mercy, who is grace. If not, we'll go
through the motions, and if we don't leave, it will just be
show. If we don't turn into an Esau,
it will just be a Pharisee. But here in chapter 19 of Exodus, Look at verse 10. The Lord said,
Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow. Let
them wash their clothes. Be ready against the third day.
The Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon
Mount Sinai. Thou shalt set bounds unto the
people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves that ye go
not up unto the mount, or touch the border of it. Whoever touches
the mount shall be surely put to death. Should not a hand touch
it, it will surely be stoned or shot through. Whether beast
or man, shall not live. When the trumpet sounds long,
they shall come to the mount, but don't touch it." Don't touch
it. Why does the Lord say this? Why
is the Lord being so strict? Why is it so strict? Well, Mount Sinai is God's law, and
it's too holy. Who shall ascend unto the holy
hill of the Lord? You just heard that on the radio,
didn't you? Psalm 24. He that hath clean
hands and a pure heart, that never lifteth up his soul unto
vanity, or is sworn deceitfully. Who can say that? Who can keep
God's law? What so ever things the law sayeth
that sayeth to them that are under the law? Why? That every
mouth of me stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God. All have sinned. This is not just doctrine, this
is certain. God's too holy. God's too holy. Yet men and women
still today, then, back then, and still today think and pretend
to keep God's law. Now, I don't want to make fun
of anybody. I don't want to in such a way
as to that we appear to be better than they are. And Paul said
it this way in Romans 10. He said, brethren, my heart,
I bear them record, my brethren record, that they have a zeal
for God, but it's not according to knowledge. They, being ignorant
of God's righteousness, His holiness, are going about to establish
their own righteousness. We've got a bunch of people in
this town and other towns who dress up a certain way, be it
the German Baptists, be it the Pentecostal holiness, or be it
the Seventh-day, who think they're keeping God's law, and they're
playing with fire. Playing with fire. You've got
even reformed people, so-called, who think they're keeping the
Sabbath, keeping the law. To offend at one point is to
be guilty of all, the Lord said. And it's not a pick and choose.
It's not, I can keep this law, so I'm going to keep that. I
can't keep that, so I won't bother with that. Oh, no. Every jot
and tittle must be kept. Who can do that? None. We don't
go to God by Mount Sinai. Don't even touch it. Don't even
try to. Don't even try to. And so many do that. Many do
that. Then he talked about gazers,
verse 21. He said, you tell the people,
don't touch this mountain. Don't even come near it. Don't
even come near it. You know who had to go up that
mountain? One man went up that mountain
on behalf of those people, Moses. Well, who must go to God for
us sinners? One mediator between God and man, the Holy One of
Israel. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He ascended that mountain for us. Verse 21, He said, Go down
and charge the people lest they break through unto the Lord and
be gazers, curiosity seekers, looking. At the excitement, ooh,
look, fireworks. That mountain, you know, was
smoking and on fire and a cloud and trumpet and all that. And
people, ooh, let's go look at that. Playing with fire. Playing with fire. In other words,
there's lots of people. Go back to Hebrews 12. Am I going
too fast? There's so much to deal with
here, I'm trying to get through this, yet get a point across.
So much religion today, people just in it for the excitement
or in it for entertainment or a good show, you know, play with
fire. God is to be worshipped in spirit
and truth, not the flesh. God is not worshipped with men's
hands, with outward fleshly this and that and the other. And religion
today, you know how it is. Read the article by Brother Terrell
in the Bulletin. It ought to greatly stir us up
and trouble us, what we see. When we go by and see these signs
on these bulletin boards and see what all is going on in religion
today, it ought to grieve us. We ought to be like Jeremiah,
the weeping prophet. He said, I was weeping because
of the false prophets and what they've done. David said, Lord,
they've made void Your law. They've just abused Your Word
and corrupted it to no end. They've made a mockery of our
God and His Word and His truth and His Son and His gospel. They
want to just dream us to no end. That's why what we're doing here,
just trying to say what God says, is so vital, so vital. Religion is known today by the
world for bake sales, yard sales, car shows, spaghetti dinners,
and fundraising, all that crap. God is not mocked. And men are
playing with fire. Our God is a consuming fire.
He says, he's going to burn it up. It's a stench in his nostrils.
If it bothers us, how much more? That's why he says, come out
from among them. Be separate. Don't take part. Lord's acre. Selling their trash. Goodness
gracious. Our God is a consuming fire. Our God. Who is our God? Jesus
Christ. He hasn't changed. Oh, and who makes us to differ?
That's why, you know, when we come to hear this gospel, We're
coming to thank God for calling us out. Like the Jews of old, he said,
I've come down to bring you out of Egypt, because I'm going to
destroy it. I'm going to bring you out. You're
no different than they were. Oh, my, that's why we've come,
to give thanks and to hear and heed His Word again, to remind
us, remind us, remind us. Chapter 12, verse 22, it says,
Moses went up and he trembled at the Word of the Lord, didn't
he? This man, when I looked, he was poor and of a contrite
heart and trembling at my Word. Trembling at my Word. Alright,
he says, you've not come to that law, but you've come to Mount
Sion. My, my, my time is up, but I'm
going to go on, okay? You've not come to Mount Sinai. I can't leave you at Sinai. You've
come to Mount Sion. Mount Sion, it says, the city
of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, an innumerable company
of angels. I'm not talking about those beings
in heaven, but all of God's people. They'll all be as angels, he
said. They're all angels. Saints and angels. And the General
Assembly. Church of the Firstborn, that's
the Church of Christ, not that Campbellite bunch, but the true
Church of Christ. And who is Israel? Who is a Jew? What does this
mean? Somebody asked me this recently.
It's a good question. Does the Church replace Israel
of old? Well, it never has been replaced,
really. They are not all Israel that
are of Israel. He is a Jew which is one inwardly,
not outwardly. Circumcision is of the heart,
not of the flesh. It always has been that way.
God had a national, seemed like a national people, but they weren't
his true people. There was a remnant then, according
to the election of Greg, even as there is now. The true people
of God have always been true worshipers of God, in spirit
and in truth, those who look to Christ. who went through the
motions, the Jews, and thought they were God's people and looked
like it to the world, but were not. It says, "...with many of
them God was not pleased, for unto them was the gospel preached
as unto us, not being mixed with faith." They were going through
the motions, keeping the Sabbath and all that, thinking they were.
And they weren't looking to Christ of whom that Sabbath spoke. And
on and on I could go about that. You have come to the true Mount
Zion. Anybody that goes over to that
place called Holy Land over there and wants to see Mount Zion has
missed it. You are sitting on Mount Zion
right now. If you are in Christ looking
to cry, you're sitting on Mount Zion. He said, I've set my King
on my holy hill of Zion. That was a thousand years before
Christ came. He said, I've already set Him
there. It's a spiritual kingdom. Read on. It says, the city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. City of God. You're in it. You're living in
it right now. You're in the kingdom of God. It doesn't come with
observation. If somebody's waiting on that
temple to be built, they're going to be waiting forever. He's already
built his temple, and he's putting his people in it. And he dwells
in it right now. What's that? The church. It always
has been. The church. Read on. He says,
you come to the innumerable company of angels. We entertain angels
unaware. Right now. The true people of God. Unaware. Oh, they're just men. Nope. Angels. You're going to see. You're going
to see. The General Assembly, Church of the Firstborn, General
Church, and the Scripture says, the family of God in heaven and
in earth. Church of the Firstborn, Christ
who built this church. Their names are written in heaven.
When did he write those names? Before the world began. He wrote
them. We don't write them. To God the
Judge of all, the spirits of just men made perfect. Oh, my. You're in the company of just
men, made perfect. Or just men, made
perfect. In Christ Jesus. God's people
are sinless, holy, unblameable. No, he's a sinner, I see it.
They're just men in Christ. Justified by Christ. To Christ
Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. The New Covenant. Is the New Covenant new? Which covenant was first? This is the everlasting covenant,
the eternal covenant. Christ is the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. God actually made that covenant
before he made the covenant of work, this do and live. Did he
know Adam was not going to do it and fall? Why, of course he
did. And no, none to God are all his
works from the beginning. This was not a contingency plan.
This is not, well, that didn't work, so I'll try this. Oh, no,
no, no, no. This is the eternal covenant that he made with Christ.
They're going to break it. They're all going to break it.
This is the eternal covenant. He said, now you're going to
keep it. You're going to fulfill it for them. From Adam to Zerubbabel. A to Z, from Abel to the last
one. You're going to fulfill it. This
is the covenant. Will you do it? Christ said,
I'll do it. I'll be the mediator. I'll be the covenant head. And
Adam all die and Christ all wait alive. Keeper of the covenant. He's the one. And he came and
he did it. It's new because it's newly revealed. That's why. Newly revealed. That's why it's
called new. It's really the first. Read on. Verse 25, and it speaks
better things than that of Abel, than the blood of a lamb. This
is his own precious blood. See that you refuse him, not
him that speaketh. You see what importance or how
God speaks of his Word and the hearing of his Word? with such
urgency over and over again. Beginning in chapter 1 of this
Hebrews, he said, God, who at sundry times and doubt, spake.
He spoke unto the fathers by the prophet. I don't like Ezekiel. I don't like... If you don't
hear him, you won't hear from God. God spoke then. God spoke now by His Son, and
33 years He left, and now He still speaketh. How does He speak? He still speaks the same way
through His Word, through a man, through a man. Well, see that
you refuse not Him that speaketh. And it goes on and on and on
through Hebrews to say, take heed what you hear. Today, if
you'll hear His voice, don't let it slip. Don't let it slip. If they had escaped not, verse
25, who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not
we escape, we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.
Verse 26, whose voice shook the earth, but now he hath promised
Satan, once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. God has not spoken out loud since
Christ was on the earth nearly two thousand years ago. So the
next time he speaks, it's going to shake heaven and earth. And the Scriptures talk about
men's hearts failing them. And then verse 27, this Word,
this Word, you see, the Word, the Word, the Word, the Word,
the Word. Today, if you hear his voice, the Word, yet once
more signifying the removing of those things that are shaken.
It's all going to be seeing that all these things shall be dissolved."
Everything. Everything. Every single thing
that we see and touch is going to be dissolved. Every one but
those things which cannot be shaken. A kingdom that cannot
be moved. Cannot be moved. That those things
which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we receive in a kingdom. which cannot be moved. We are
being put into that kingdom and receiving, believing, looking
for that kingdom that cannot be moved, that city that has
foundations, that is builder and maker of God. Let us, verse
28, have grace, find grace, hold fast. May God give us grace whereby
we may serve God acceptably. There is a way to worship God.
There is a way to serve God. It must be acceptable. It must
be acceptable. How is it? Read on. With reverence
and godly fear. See that? With reverence and
godly fear. Everything we do and say is with
God's holiness in mind. who we're approaching, from the
way we dress, to the way we sing, to everything we do. There is
a way to approach God acceptably, with reverence. That is, in worship
and respect, and reverence for His Word, and godly fear. How? Through one way. One way. Jesus Christ. By faith and Christ. Okay? Worship in spirit and in truth. That's Christ. Because our God
is a consuming fire. It's all going to just melt away
with a fervent heat. Scripture says, you know, they
talk about a secret rapture. He says he's going to destroy
Satan and everything with the brightness of his coming. Like
the lightning that glides from the east to the west. Does that
sound like secret to you? Burn it up. Take his people. In a moment, a twinkling of an
eye, they'll be changed. Same message, all the apostles
and prophets, same message. Seeing that all these things
be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be, he said.
I mean, that is totally diligent, looking forward, looking to Him
and looking forward to His coming. Waiting, as those that wait for
His Son from heaven. Because it's right soon. He's
at the door. He's at the door. Okay.