Welcome to our program. Now today
I'm going to be preaching from Hebrews chapter 12 and I'm going
to begin the message in verse 18. The title of this message
is A Story of Two Mountains. The Apostle mentions two mountains
here in this passage. One is Mount Sinai from which
Israel got the law through Moses. God gave Israel the law through
Moses on Mount Sinai. And that's the Ten Commandments,
it's the ceremonial law, the law of sacrifice in the priesthood,
the civil laws, the dietary laws, they all came from God who gave
it to the children of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai.
That's the Old Covenant. That's the Old Covenant law which
was imposed on Israel as a nation for a temporary period of time.
And then he mentions another mount, Mount Sion. or it's sometimes
called Mount Zion. And Mount Zion represents the
new covenant in Christ. It's the church, the church of
God, the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of
truth, saved by the grace of God, which has not a law imposed
upon them, but the law of God written on their hearts. Now,
the context of this is plain from the scripture here. The
apostle had been talking about God's loving discipline, that
even when the children of God go through trials and afflictions,
that they are not to look upon these trials and afflictions
that come for righteousness sake, for their testimony of the gospel,
for their identification with Christ in the church, as threatenings,
as legal punishments from God. Because these are the actions
of a loving father disciplining, chastening his children. Now
the Bible speaks of both the goodness and the severity of
God. The goodness of God is in Christ. Now remember that. If you receive
anything good from God that works towards your good eternally,
it is in Christ. Even the good things that God
gives to the world in general, the things of this life, actually
become a curse to those who do not know Christ, because there
will be a testimony against them. But all the good that God has
for us eternally is in Christ. Salvation by God's grace in Christ. And then there's the severity
of God. Now that refers mainly to those who do not know Christ,
who do not have His blood to wash away their sins. and who
do not have his righteousness to justify them eternally. To
them God is a severe, stern judge, not mean, but he's just. He must
punish sin. The Bible says it is the goodness
of God that leads to repentance. The Bible says also in the Great
Commission that he that believeth not shall be damned, but he that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. All who know Christ
So what Paul is talking about here to these Hebrew believers
is that when we look at these afflictions and trials, we look
upon them as the goodness of God, not God's threatenings,
not God's legal punishments, not God's wrath upon us. And
he uses these two mountains to make his point. First of all,
he talks about the threatenings of Mount Sinai. He says in verse
18, For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched,
and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and
tempest, that's storms, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice
of words, which voice they that heard entreated, begged, 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 touched
the mountain, Mount Sinai, It shall be stoned, or thrust through
with a dart of spear. And so terrible was the sight,
that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake." Now that whole
picture, all that description describes the physical Mount
Sinai from which God gave the law to Israel. And that law,
the threatenings there, you see, this law, that was a legal system,
the Old Covenant, imposed on Israel. And you know, when God
gave that law, there were storms and lightnings and thunderings
and blackness upon that mountain. And when Moses came down, he
had a veil over his face. The glory of the Lord shone forth
so much that the children of Israel could not even look upon
his face. And Moses came down and he read the law. The Law
of God, the Ten Commandments. And it says here in verse 20,
now notice this, it says, They could not endure that which was
commanded. That's representative of the
Law of God. And the Law of God requires perfect
obedience in every way. Not just in outward action, but
in thought, in word, in motive, in attitude. The Law of God requires
perfection. And no sinner can keep the law. That's why the Bible is very
plain. No flesh shall be justified, declared not guilty, and declared
righteous by deeds of the law. Because the law says, as Galatians
3 and verse 10 tells us, as quoted from the book of Deuteronomy,
the second rendering of the law, That curseth is everyone that
continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them." That's the threatenings and the terror
of Mount Sinai upon the children of Israel. Now, that law given
to Israel, the national people of Israel, the physical Israel,
that law given to them was never given to be a way of salvation. God never said that I will save
you if you keep this law. The fact is, is this, if you
could keep the law, you don't need salvation. You see, if righteousness
come by the law, Christ died in vain. You don't need a Savior
if you can keep the law. If you don't need, if you can
keep the law perfectly in every jot and tittle, you don't need
redemption, you don't need grace, you stand on your own merit.
Now, the problem is that none of us can keep the law, for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of
sin is death. And that's the case with every
one of us born of Adam. We're born in sin. We're not sinners because we
sin. We're born sinners, and we sin as a result of that. We
have a nature of sin, we're born dead in trespasses and sins,
we come forth from the womb speaking lies, that's what we retain from
Adam, that's what we got from Adam. We cannot keep the law. So therefore it's impossible
for any of us to be saved if salvation is conditioned on us.
If it's based upon our law keeping and all, and that's the terrors
of the law. The law was never given for Mount Sinai to be a
way of salvation. The law was given to show them
their sinfulness. The law was given to show them
the impossibility of salvation by their works. And as Galatians
3 and verse 24 tells us, the law was given on Mount Sinai,
the Ten Commandments, the law of ceremony and sacrifice and
the priesthood, the altar, the bloodshedding of animals, All
that law was given to be a schoolmaster to lead them unto Christ. But
there was no salvation in the law itself. All there was was
terror, blackness, darkness, wrath. And what Paul is saying
here is to believers now, to those who have come to Christ,
you've not come to Mount Sinai with all of its threatenings
and its wrath and its darkness and its conditions and requirements.
And he said even Moses quaked in fear. He trembled in fear. You know, the Pharisees used
to invoke Moses. When Christ came and began to
teach the gospel of God's grace, and it threatened the Pharisees,
he told them in the Sermon on the Mount, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. In other words, whatever
righteousness the scribes and Pharisees had, you've got to
have one greater than that. What he was teaching is this.
It's impossible for any sinner, even the best of sinners, to
bring forth a righteousness that God will be pleased with. That's why God sent his Son into
the world, to produce one for his people. He worked it out. It's the righteousness of God
in Christ. And so even the Pharisees, when they felt threatened, they
would invoke the name of Moses. They said, we have Moses, we
have the Scriptures. Christ told them one time, He
says, you do search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life, but they are they which testify of me. He said,
you claim Moses as your Savior, but He said, you have one who
will accuse you, Moses himself. Even Moses, when he looked at
that law and saw its harsh requirements of perfect obedience, he trembled
with fear. And that's why Christ said, Moses
wrote of me. Moses looked forward to the promise
of salvation by grace in Christ. So believers, we don't rest in
Mount Sinai. You see that? Those saved by
the grace of God, saved people, those who are in Christ, we're
not resting at the foot of Mount Sinai, resting in our works,
resting in our attempts. But look at verse 22. Here's
the second mountain. Now that's the story of Mount
Sinai, but here's the story of another mountain. But you are
come unto Mount Zion. You've come to Christ. That's the church of the living
God. Christ came out of Zion, the scripture says. That is,
he identified with his people in his humanity. And you've come
to Mount Zion. You've come to the church of
the living God. What is the church? Well, the
Bible tells us the word church actually means called out ones. They've been called out. They've
been called out of the world by the effectual, invincible
calling of the Holy Spirit by the preaching of the gospel.
But the church in the Bible, they are the people of God, the
elect, the sheep of Christ. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. And the Bible says that Christ redeemed the
church with his own blood. So they are a group of people
who have been washed in the blood of Christ. The church is called
his bride. And in the book of Revelation
and other places it says the bride has the wedding garment
on. What is that wedding garment?
I heard a man on television one time describe that wedding garment
as the works of the saints, but no sir, that would be a tattered,
filthy garment. The wedding garment is the righteousness
of Christ given to them, laid upon them, imputed to them, which
they receive by God-given faith. So the church, they are the gathering
of people that's redeemed by the blood of Christ, clothed
in His righteousness, and they've been born again by the Spirit
of God. They've been called out of the world, they've been given
life and called out by the preaching of the gospel, and they gather
together. And it's to this Mount Sion that
all who have come to Christ come. We rest in Him. We rest in His
righteousness, not our own. We rest in his finished work,
not our own. And he says that. You are come
unto Mount Sinai and unto the city of the living God. Not an
earthly city like Jerusalem here on earth, but the heavenly city. And he says it, the heavenly
Jerusalem. You see, Jerusalem is called
the city of peace. And that earthly Jerusalem, think
about it, in the history of earthly Jerusalem, there's been anything
but peace. It's always been wars and fighting and self-righteous
religion. But in the heavenly Jerusalem,
heaven itself, the dwelling place of God, it's the city of the
living God, the God of life and the God who gives life. And he
says, and you come to the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable
company of angels, that's messengers of God. And he says in verse
23, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn. That's
the church, what we already talked about, the redeemed of God, the
sheep of Christ, the elect of God, called out, washed in his
blood, clothed in his righteousness. And notice the language here.
It's the church of the firstborn. Now, who is the firstborn? Well,
that's Christ. Why is he called the firstborn?
Well, there's several reasons. Number one, him being the firstborn
speaks of his preeminence. He's preeminent in all things. The Bible says that in Colossians
chapter one, that it pleased the Lord that in him should all
fullness dwell, that he might have the preeminence. He is Lord
of Lord, King of kings. God the Father has made him both
Lord and Christ. He has a name which is above
every name. And at the name of Jesus, every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord.
He has the preeminence. In heaven our eyes will be upon
him. Our song will be worthy as the
lamb that was slain. We'll spend eternity worshiping
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as we see the Son. God
the Son incarnate, the great mediator. And my friend, he has
the preeminence. Listen, we see the glory and
the fullness of the Father, the glory and the fullness of the
Son, and the glory and the fullness of the Spirit through Christ.
For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we,
we who are the church, believers, we're complete in Him. Complete
in Him. And that's what it means. And
secondly, the church of the firstborn, He is the first one to be resurrected
from the dead. Now, you say, well, wait a minute
now, there were people that were raised from the dead before him,
but not as a representative. And they all were raised from
the dead only to die again, like Lazarus. In John chapter 11,
we read of Lazarus who was raised from the dead. But you know what?
Lazarus died again. But our Lord, when He was resurrected
from the dead, He was raised unto life and to never die again. You see, He was raised as the
representative of a people. Our justification before God,
you see, He was raised for our justification. And when He came
forth from the grave, the Bible says He's the firstfruits of
them that sleep. That's an analogy of the old
covenant during the harvest time when they brought in the firstfruits.
If the firstfruits, the first bringing in of the crop, if the
firstfruits were good, the whole crop would follow good. And that's
what he's saying. Christ was raised from the dead.
He's the firstfruits. And you know what? Everyone whom
he represented, the whole crop, will follow. If he is arisen,
we'll be raised. That's what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
15. So he says, we're come to the
general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written
in heaven. That means enrolled in heaven.
Our names were written in heaven before the foundation of the
world. God chose a people, gave them to Christ. And he says here,
and to God the judge of all. Now, what does that mean? Well,
God is our judge. But if we are in Christ, we've
already been judged. And that's such a comforting
thought to me. It's a truth. That when I appear
before God at the judgment, it's not to be judged. It will only
be declared what I am in Christ. My works will only evidence my
union with Christ. They won't be weighed in the
balance to see how much I've earned. That has nothing to do
with it. There's no earning power in heaven
or at the judgment. But it will only be declared
what I already am in Christ. I've already been judged. I was
judged 2,000 years ago in Christ. The wrath of God for my sins
was poured down upon the Lord Jesus Christ for my sins charged
to Him. He was made sin, and he was brought
under the guilt of sin by imputation, by them being legally accounted
to him, and he suffered an untold agony in his very soul for my
sins, and he drank damnation dry." God judged him, and when
he judged him, he judged me. So that when he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried.
And when he arose again, I arose. And he's seated at the right
hand of the Father. I'm with him in his person. One day I'll
be there with him in my experience. And so he says, we've come to
God the judge of all. Now, those without Christ will
be judged by their works. If you don't have Christ, you'll
be judged by your works, and I'll guarantee you, you'll be
found lacking. You'll be found guilty. That's
why we say, run to Christ. Believe in him. And then he says,
we come to the spirits of just men made perfect. We come to
the spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect in
Christ. And he says in verse 24, we come
to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant or new Testament.
We come to Christ. That's what you do for salvation.
Salvation's in him. Somebody said, well, I want to
be saved. Well, look to the Savior. Somebody said, I want to be righteous.
Well, look to the one who is righteous. Somebody said, I want
to be holy. Well, look to the one who is
holy. He is holiness itself. I need to be redeemed. Well,
look to him who is redemption. We don't come to the law for
salvation. It'll condemn us. We come to
Jesus. That means Jehovah who saves.
We come to Christ. And he's the mediator, not of
the old covenant like Moses, which could not save. But he's
the mediator of the new covenant, and he is salvation. And he says,
we come to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel. Now, he refers to Abel. You remember
the story of Cain and Abel, how Cain brought his offering to
the Lord, the works of his hands, what he had raised in the field,
and how Abel brought the blood of the Lamb, the blood of sacrifice. Well, here what he's talking
about is this. The blood that we offer to God is not like the
blood Abel offered, the animal blood. The blood we offer is
the blood of the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of
the world rather. We offer the blood of Christ.
Now, Abel's blood, it pictured and typified Christ and his blood. Abel wasn't depending on animal
blood to save him. That was God's way of worship,
that was His prescribed way of worship, that those who recognized
they were sinners and needed a Savior, needed the grace of
God, would bring the blood of an animal and show their faith
in the promised Messiah who was to come. And so the blood of
sprinkling here, that speaks better things than that of Abel,
in other words it speaks more clearly, Then what Abel spoke
in that animal sacrifice, that's the blood of Christ. The blood
of Christ cleanses us from all sin. So he says in verse 25,
he says, see that you refuse not him that speaketh. Now who's
speaking here? Well, Christ is. And don't refuse
him. What's he speaking? What is his
message? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. repent of your sins, don't seek
salvation by the law, but look to Christ, look to his blood
and his righteousness alone, and don't refuse him. He says,
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. Abel spoke on earth, and Cain
refused. And what happened? Well, we know
Cain was rejected. Moses spoke on earth, and the
majority of the children of Israel refused. And what happened? They
perished in unbelief in the wilderness. Well, if Abel who spoke on earth
and Moses who spoke on earth, if they spoke things and those
who refused them perished, how much more shall we who hear the
Son of God in the Gospel The gospel of his finished work.
How much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that
speaketh from heaven?" My friend, this is God speaking in this
book here. The gospel is the gospel of God. It's not Bill
Parker's gospel. It's not of man. I didn't come
up with this. I can't put a copyright on it.
I can't sign my name as the author of this. Men write these books
and they say, I'm the author. I'm not the author of this. God
is the author. This message of free and sovereign
grace, what a wonderful message it is. Oh, I tell you, if there's
any sinners out there, anybody who sees themselves as a sinner,
and you come to the end of your rope, and you know that you have
nothing to recommend yourself unto God, nothing that you've
done, nothing that you are, nothing that's in you, you're at the
end of your rope, you're like that publican who said, God be,
beat on his breast, said, God be merciful to me, the sinner.
I'm going to tell you, to you, this is great news. This is God
speaking from heaven. Salvation by grace, salvation
through Christ based on his blood and righteousness. And he says
in verse 26, whose voice then shook the earth, God's voice
then shook the earth back in Mount Sinai. But now he hath
promised, saying, Yet once more I shape not the earth only, but
also heaven. I'll tell you, when Christ died,
He gave up the ghosts, heaven took notice. And it says in verse
27, and this word yet once more signified the removing of those
things that are shaken as of things that are made and those
things which cannot be shaken may remain. What he's simply
saying in that verse is this. Everything that was given through
Moses that could be shaken is gone. It's removed out of the
way. It served its purpose, now it's
gone. The old is vanished and taken
out of the way. But everything that Christ did,
which cannot be shaken, which cannot be removed, it remains
eternal. You see what I'm saying? That
old covenant, Mount Sinai, the nation Israel, that was only
temporary. And it could be shaken. It's gone. One day, they say,
well, here's Mount Sinai. They showed on the geographical
map. One day it's going to be gone. This whole earth is going
to be gone. It's going to burn up. But that which we have in
Christ, all wisdom, all righteousness, all sanctification or holiness,
all redemption, eternal life, the Spirit of Christ, all of
that will remain. It can't be shaken, because it's
of Him, and He's the foundation of it. You see, we stand upon
the rock, Christ Jesus, and we shall not be moved. We shall
not be moved. I quote that hymn, My hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And
I shall not trust the sweetest frame, dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, on Christ the solid rock
I stand. And all other ground is sinking
sand. So he says in verse 28, Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, This new kingdom in Christ cannot be moved.
Let us have grace." That means let us hold fast. "...whereby
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, with
respect and regard for the honor of his character and his glory."
Not with legal fear, but godly fear. That's worship. And he
says in verse 29, "...for our God is a consuming fire." My
friend, God is a consuming fire, a God of wrath to those who do
not have Christ. But in Christ, he's a loving
father and we cannot be moved. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this
message. And I'd like to take this opportunity to invite any
of you who live in or near the Ashland, Kentucky area to visit
our church, 13th Street Baptist Church. Our Sunday services,
we begin in the morning, we have a 9.30 Sunday school Bible study. And at 10.15 we have a preaching
service, a worship service in the morning. And Sunday night
at 6.30 we have another preaching service, worship, prayer and
Bible study. And then on Wednesday night we
have a 7.30 Bible study and prayer meeting and worship service.
We invite any of you who hear this program, who can get there,
to come and visit us at our church. We'd love to have you and love
to welcome you. to come and hear the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace with us.