If you will, open your Bibles
with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And I want
to mention this, that Albert Lowe is going to have back surgery
tomorrow down in Cookeville. And, you know, it'll be painful
and takes a while to get over it. So you all be mindful of
him and his wife, Barb. I'm glad I don't have to go through
things like that. I may have to one of these days, but I'm
very grateful I don't now. I'm going to start reading in
verse 18 and read down through verse 24. Hebrews 12, 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, and the sound of
a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated
that the words 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, it should 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 Zion, not to Mount Sinai, but unto Mount Zion, and
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. and to
an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church
of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and 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. Now,
if you look with me back in Hebrews 12, there's two different mountains
here. And I'm going to get my text,
my subject out of verse 23. It says to the General Assembly
and Church of the Firstborn. The title of my message this
morning is the Church of the Firstborn. But he is setting
here, the apostle is setting in contrast the two mountains. The mountains that the law was
given on and the mountain of Zion, the city of the living
God. And he makes such a A distinct
difference between the two. And it's amazing the difference
between them. Sinai is where the law was given. Sinai where the covenant of works
was set. Sinai where they all said, yes,
whatever God says, we'll do it. And yet, they did not do what
God commanded. And Mount Zion is where grace
comes from and the gospel comes from. It's the city of the living
God. It's the heavenly Jerusalem.
And I'll tell you what, all the law can do is show the effect
of what it does to men. All it can do is scare a man
to death and condemn him. It can never give him life. For
what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh. And the scripture says, as many as are of the works of
the law, the works of the law, are under the curse. And so if
a man's going to be saved, by what he does he's got to do it
perfectly and God gave just 10 commandments 10 and then he gave
Israel a whole bunch of other ordinances that they were supposed
to do and a bunch of sacrifices they were supposed to keep and
they never done any of it never done any of it and so all the
law can do is condemn and find fault and a man will never ever
find any peace trying to be saved by what he does never never never
never and so when he had given a description of Sinai he then
gives a description of the gospel and the gospel dispensation.
Israel had an assembly and it says in verse 18. Israel had
an assembly for you are not come unto the mouth that might be
touched and burned with blackness or fire or under blackness and
darkness and tempest When God come down, the mountain, the
scripture says the mountain shook and quake and fire come off that
mountain. God came down in dark clouds
and there was a trumpet sounded. And then they heard words coming
down off that mountain. There's all gathered around it.
They had a rope around it. They had it fixed up. If anybody went up to that rope
or anything went past that rope, death was automatic for them.
That's what the law can do. All it can do is produce death.
And they that heard it, they heard that voice. They said,
oh, don't let us hear that voice. That voice is too scary. That
voice terrifies us. Moses, don't let God speak anymore. You go hear what he has said.
You come tell us. And look what it says there in
verse 20, for they could not endure that which was commanded. They couldn't endure it. And
if so much as a beast, an animal, touched that mountain, it had
to be stoned or stabbed with a dart. And so terrible was the
sight that Moses himself, who stood in the presence of God
and got the log, came back down off that mountain. And so terrible
was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and shake. That's what he said about it.
But now look at the difference. Look at the difference. They
had their assembly. Here's our assembly. But ye are come, not to Mount
Sinai, ye are come unto Mount Zion. Listen to this, unto the
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. And not all of that,
but to the innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly,
great assembly, and church of the firstborn. Now listen to
this about this church of the firstborn, which are written
in heaven. Oh my. The law was written on tablets.
Our name's written in heaven. And to God, the judge of all.
Oh my, now we're coming unto God now. He's the living God. And to the spirits of just men,
made perfect. And oh, not only that, but we've
come unto Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. And to the
blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
They had their assembly, we got ours. And there's a mountain
that believers come unto, Mount Zion. You go through the scriptures
in old Mount Zion, that's where God dwelt. That was a place of
peace, that's the place where God dwelt. That's where the church
was called to be. And there's this great difference
between Mount Zion and Sinai. Sinai smoked and quaked and fire
come down on it. Zion does it. No, grace comes
from Zion. No life given at Sinai. But life, life itself is given
at Zion. And there was a great difference
in the word spoken. The word spoken up there, the
people said, we don't want to hear it. Now those that come
unto his mouth, Zion, that's what they want to do. They want
to hear the voice of God. They want to hear the voice of
Christ. They want to hear what God's got to say. And under the
law, when they came to Sinai, it says, do sanctify yourselves. We come under Mount Zion and
it says, we're set apart and God sanctified us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And there was trumpet, there
was a trumpet sounding. And all that trumpet caused those
people to be afraid. But under the gospel, under the
Mount Zion, there was a silver trumpet that was blown. that
proclaimed the year of jubilee at zion and at zion they could
i mean at sinai they couldn't endure the presence of god there
but at mount zion is the city of the living god and that's
where we long to be moses feared and quaked to sign sinai and
we come and rejoice at mount zion what a difference now let
me give you some things about this church of the firstborn
It says there in verse 23, we've come to the General Assembly
and Church of the Firstborn under Mount Zion. We've come to the
Church of the Firstborn and believers are called the Church of the
Firstborn. That's what we're called, the
Church of the Firstborn. And when you find firstborn in
the scriptures, what it means is this, it means that the most
excellent, it means the chief. When you're the firstborn, the
most excellent means the chief. And our Lord Jesus Christ, now
you keep Hebrews and look over with me in Colossians chapter
1. Go back to your left till you
get to Colossians and you go to chapter 1 and look what it
says here about our Lord Jesus Christ. Firstborn in the scriptures
often times means the most, the most excellent, the chief. And
that's the way it is in the scriptures, the firstborn is the most excellent,
the chief. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
He's the fairest among 10,000. He's the chiefest among 10,000.
But look what it says here in verse 17. of chapter 1 of Colossians. And He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist. And listen to this, He is the
body, He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning. Now listen to this, the firstborn
from the dead. He is the firstborn from the
dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. and so
is he you know i'm talking about the firstborn christ is the firstborn
from the dead that he might in all things have the preeminence
now there was lots of people that was raised from the dead
in the old testament there was two people raised from the dead
in the old testament And our Lord Jesus Christ raised three
people from the dead in the New Testament, but somebody else
raised them from the dead. Somebody else gave them life.
But when our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, he's the
first person who ever rose from the dead by his own will, by
his own power, and to his own glory. Nobody raised him from
the dead. He said, I've got power to lay
down my life, and I've got the power to take it up again. so
he was the firstborn that ever come from the dead and that tells
us that he's the chief he's the preeminent one and beloved we're
the church of the firstborn because we're in him who's the firstborn
and when he was buried we was buried with him when he raised
we was raised with him and we sat together with him in heavenly
places And I tell you what, and believers, God's people are the
most excellent people on the face of the earth, talking about
the church of the firstborn. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
what this life on earth would be without God having His church
here on this earth? Can you imagine what it would
be? It's bad enough and I mean God just keeps withdrawing His
Spirit and men get worse and worse and worse and worse and
worse and the worst place that God has withdrew His Spirit is
in all these religious organizations. Oh, listen how God describes
His Church, Church of the Firstborn. And this is why the first thing
He calls them is salt. He said, You're the salt of the
earth. And you know what salt does? It purifies, it cleanses,
it purifies for one thing. And it keeps things from putrefaction,
keeps things from putrefying. You know, people used to put
salt and stuff on their meat, you know, and they'd put up their
hams and put up their side meat, and they would soak it in, keep
it just wrapped up in salt and keep all this salt and stuff
on. Why? To keep it from rotting and to season it and keep it.
And not only that, the salt is what you season things with.
So God says, you're the salt of the earth. And you take the
church away from this earth, and there ain't nothing in this
this place is rotten and it's corrupt it's got no taste to
it's got no seasoning in it and not only did he call us the salt
of the earth but he called us the light of the world the light
of the world do you know how dark this world is outside this
place right here oh it's a dark place dark Our Lord Jesus Christ
said it like this, light shined in darkness and the darkness
doesn't comprehend it at all. And he says we're the light of
the world. If there's any light in this world, it's the church
that has the light. The church of the firstborn.
And you know what else he called us? He called us a holy nation. A holy nation. Everyone that's
ever been born of God, he says it's a holy nation. All of us
gathered this morning, God looks at us and says he's a holy nation.
They're holy people, a holy nation. And not only that, but he says
they're peculiar people. Very peculiar. What makes them
peculiar? They say it's of good works not
to get anything from God, but because God made them that way.
And oh, he calls them a very giving people. They're generous
people. They're a people that delights
in giving. I was down in Tortola preaching
one time a few years ago, and this preacher got up, and he
was a He had been a professor of, he taught preaching out at
Duke University. And he was down there preaching,
and he got up and went to harping and harping and harping on people,
how people ought to give, and hey, they need to be giving,
and they ought to give this, that, and the other. And I got
right up behind him, and I said, I'm going to tell you something.
Everybody that God saves by his grace, they give. And if you
have to be browbeaten to give, keep it. That old boy just sat there.
And I got to tell you something else I told him when he got through
preaching. I walked up to him and I said,
son, you didn't even come a spitting distance of the gospel. Nothing
spitting distance of it. And God's going to judge you
for that. And Greg Elmquist did the same thing. He got up and
he was preaching and Greg told him while he was preaching, said,
man, you're not preaching the truth. Got up and said it out
loud. That's what you call being light
of the world. Ain't no sense beating around the bush when
you got somebody lying on God. But oh, the Lord's people, they're
generous. They are generous. And here's,
people's come here before, they ain't never been here before,
and they come a few services, where do y'all, where do y'all take
up an offering? And I'll tell you something else
God says about them. They adorn. They dress up the doctrine of
God our Savior. They make God's doctrine look
good. They love grace. They love truth. And oh, if the grace we possess
doesn't make us different than other people. And our beliefs,
and how we act, and how we carry ourselves, and how we give, and
how we delight in the Gospel, the sooner you get rid of it,
the better off you'll be. Right? Ain't that right? Here's
the second meaning of the firstborn. Chief, most excellent, here's
the second meaning. Chosen of God. The firstborn
was chosen of God. Under the Moses Law, And under
the Old Testament, the firstborn were chosen by God and the scripture
said he was chosen by God for himself. Everything, everyone
that opened is the matrix. God said the firstborn is mine,
even to the mules, especially the young men, especially the
firstborn that opened in the womb. God says they are mine. They're chosen of God, and He
chose them for Himself. And when our Lord Jesus Christ,
or when God went through Egypt, and He said, I'm going to smite
the firstborn in Egypt. I'm going to smite them, and
He come through there at midnight, and the darkness could be felt.
And He told Israel, says, take you a lamb and put blood on the
side post and over the little of that door. And He says, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Now, God did slay every
firstborn in Egypt that night. even the firstborn of Israel.
But where did he slay them at? In the Lamb. So I tell you what, he smote
every firstborn. He smote the firstborn of Egypt
and he smote the firstborn of Israel, but he did it. And as
the church of the firstborn, I tell you, God says, when I
see the blood, I'll pass over you, redeemed by the blood. And I tell you, He set first
the firstborn of Israel apart for Himself. You know, God could
have chose the second one born, the third one born, the youngest
one born, but I tell you what, He does what He will. He chooses
whom He will. If He wants the firstborn, He's
gonna get him. And I tell you what, it's not of Him that willeth
or of Him that runneth, but it's of God that's sure with mercy.
And I tell you, beloved, and it says here that our names are
written in heaven, that we, this church of the firstborn, are
written in heaven. And before the world was brought into existence,
before God ever brought in this world into existence, he wrote
the name, he wrote the names of all of his elect, all of his
chosen in the Lamb's book. He wrote every single, our names
not put there when we believe, we believe because our names
was already there. He's got every name written down,
every single name. If He calls, if He put the stars
in the heavens and calls them all by name, don't you think
He'd put every name that He chose in His book? He wrote all the
names in His book, and He put down every single name, and I'm
telling you what, He fixed the place where we'd be born. He fixed the date when we would
be born. He fixed the place where we'd
hear the gospel. And he fixed the date when we'd
hear the gospel. And he fixed the date when we're
gonna leave this world. He fixed the date when we're
gonna go into his presence. Why? Because he wrote down our
name. And you know what else it says? He said, John said,
there's nobody worthy to take the book and open it. But he
said, I saw a lamb as it had been slain. He took the book
out of him that sat on the throne. and had seven seals. And our
Lord Jesus Christ opens that book. He knew what was in it. Before this world ever start
he knew he had his name Our names on his heart had our names on
his breast had our names on his shoulders. Oh my And I tell you
what he fixed the date of our date of our birth and the date
of our new birth And I tell you a lot of people don't like this
doctrine But it's so and you know why we know it so it gives
God all the glory He gets all the glory God did it all so he
gets all the glory. And you know what God says about
men? He says they're worms and they're
grasshoppers. I don't care what he calls me
as long as he calls me his own. He can say I'm a grasshopper, yes
sir. You're a worm, yes sir. You're a sinner, yes sir. You
got no hope without me, yes sir. But as long as he says you're
mine, as long as he says you're chosen of faith, As long as he
says you're loved to me, as long as he says I've redeemed, I've
paid for you with my own blood, that's all I care about. People
can say what they want. Oh my. We love this gospel and
we preach this gospel. We delight in this gospel. And
in preaching election, preaching being chosen of God, we see this,
that God is sovereign. God is sovereign, that He actually
reigns in this world. What I mean by that is God acts
like God. I listened to a message by Pastor
Todd or Brother Todd this week on the issue of predestination.
And it's a message that he preached on television. He preached on
television every week down there. And this is what he said. He
dealt with predestination six times in the New Testament predestination. And he says this, and he described
God and he said, if you worship anything other than the God of
the Bible who is sovereign, he said, you just as well worship
a totem pole. Boy, I can just, I can just imagine
people sitting there watching that. Worship a totem pole, and
he's right. He's right. But can you imagine? I was talking to one of the men,
heard him say that the first time. He says, oh, he said, I
never thought of it, but that's right. They just bailed me worshiping
a totem pole. Y'all ever seen a totem pole?
I saw some totem poles when I was out west. They got totem poles
all over Alaska. And people actually go to those
things and worship around them. They got all these different
gods stacked up on top of one another. They got one facing
that way, one facing this way, one facing that way, and one
facing this way. They got a God for any direction they want to
go in. But our God sits in the heavens and does whatsoever He
pleases. And oh, listen, when we see He's
sovereign, you know what we find out? what we are. And we find
out what we are, we know that then and there that if God don't
save us, we're not going to be saved. Had not God chosen us,
we'd have never chosen Him. And if He had not found us, we'd
have never found Him. If He hadn't called on us, we'd
have never called on Him. If we hadn't cried out to Him,
He'd have never cried out to us. Never would have happened.
Huh? Oh my. And how we'd be lost forever
had not God chosen us. Bless His Holy Name. And let
me tell you something else about the firstborn. Not only were
they chosen for God, but the firstborn inherited great, great
privileges just because of the birth, entirely by birth. The firstborn had privileges
that the secondborn didn't have, or the thirdborn didn't have.
And all the rights and all the inheritance they had was entirely
due to His birth. That's what it was. It didn't
say, well, how good does he look? How tall is he? What's his stature? Is he good looking? Is he smart? Is he moral? Is he comely? None of that enters into it.
Everything he gets is because of his birth. And everything we get is because
of our birth. We say, well, he's lame, or he's
sickly. And I tell you what, if he was
lame, if he was blind, if he was like Mephibosheth, when David
said, is there any yet of the house of Saul that I can show
mercy to? And I tell you what, he says,
there's one, Jonathan's son, that's the firstborn of Jonathan.
Said, but oh, listen, he can't get there to David. David said,
go fetch him, go bring him over here. He couldn't get there by
himself. Somebody had to go get him. And
when he got there, you know what the first thing he said when
he got in David's presence? He said, why would you consider
such a dead dog as me? And he said, fear not. And you
know what? David gave him everything back
that he had lost, gave him his entire heritage back. Why? Because of his birth. And everything
we get is because of our birth, our new birth. The new birth, being born again,
being united to Christ makes us heirs of God by two ways. By regeneration. When God regenerates
us, saves us, and regeneration just means the new birth. and
when we have the new birth we have no part in that we absolutely
have no part in that we no more part in our new birth than we
had in our first birth and so we're heirs of God because of
our birth we have all of our rights and all of our privileges
by birth and then another thing is God only had one son one son
begotten of him only one son he's the firstborn and he has
all the rights he inherits everything this is my beloved son it's like
it's like uh eliezer told about isaac he told that woman el beck
over there says my master has given everything to his son and
beloved And we, God not only gives us a new birth, but he
only had one son, so he adopts us. He adopts us, and by adoption,
we become heirs. We get everything that the son
gets. Huh? Not only do we get that, everything
he's got, but we get him himself. And if he's the heir, when you
join to the heir, everything he gets, you get. Huh? All our privileges, all our blessings,
and all of our promises of God come from this new birth, being
born of God. And out in the world you say,
how can you know you've been born? Well, a baby, when it's
born, it starts crying. It manifests life. It wiggles,
it cries. It moves. And how do you know
you've been born of God? Do you wiggle? Do you cry? Do
you move? Do you call on God? People's not born of God don't
call on God. People's not born of God don't
have that nature. They don't know they're sinners.
They don't know they're without God. They don't know they're
without hope in this world. And until you have that new birth,
until you have the nature of God in you, and here's what's
happened. You know, you've got to have
God's nature before you can even Commune with God. You can't,
you know, what nature is it that, I know a couple of preachers
that don't believe that a man has two natures. They don't believe
that. I know several preachers now
that preachers that they're, that men don't have two natures.
Well, then if you don't have two natures, if you don't have
a new nature given to you in the new birth, you're made partakers
of the divine nature. and you have Christ in you, which
is the hope of glory, if you don't have the new nature, then
what nature do you commune with God with? What nature do you
understand the scriptures with? What nature do you pray with? If you ain't got a new nature,
that means you ain't got but one nature. And if you ain't
got but one nature, that means you're still lost. Now ain't
that right? There ain't but one nature that
man's born with. And if he hasn't born again,
it's the only nature he'll ever have. Ain't that right? If we're
born once, we're going to have to die twice. We're going to
have to die a physical death and we're going to have to die
an eternal death if a man's only born once. I told our Lord Jesus,
Christ told Judas that it'd been better that you had never been
born. Never been born. But if you're born once, born
again, have a new birth, you're only gonna leave this world once,
and then you're gonna really start living. That's what I said,
believers don't die, they enter into life. The body does, but
they don't. That's what's so wonderful about
being a believer. When you hear about a believer
going to be with Christ, you say, boy, they haven't, their
body's not, they're still here, but they gone. They're not here. Oh, it'd be better for a man
never been born if he's not born again. Huh? Oh my. And if a man's not born again,
he don't have the right, he don't have the privileges of the firstborn. And we know, we know that we've
passed from death unto life. We know that. Well, and in the
firstborn, here's another thing about the firstborn, church of
the firstborn. The firstborn are types of redemption. more than any other. The firstborn
are typical and their types of redemption more than any other.
To show that the heirs of heaven, those whose names are written,
and they that come unto Mount Zion, show that the heirs of
heaven are redeemed people. You know, the firstborn under
the law were redeemed by blood. I done told you about the passover.
They were redeemed by blood and it was the blood. God, you know,
when God, God told him to kill the lambs, he considered all
those lambs to be as one and our Lord Jesus Christ He is our
Passover, sacrifice for us. Ever since by faith I saw the
stream, thy flowing wounds supplied. Redeeming, redeeming love shall
be my thing and shall be till I die. Listen, the church of
God will all be saved by that precious blood. And not only
is it the Passover, the firstborn were redeemed by blood, But the
firstborn were redeemed by substitution. By substitution. Everyone that
was redeemed under the law and then redeemed in the Old Testament,
they were redeemed by a substitute. A lamb had to be offered for
them. Blood had to be offered for them. A sacrifice had to
be offered for them. and you know when they took that
lamb and they took that that goat and that lamb and that they
took that and they confessed over it the sins of Israel and
then they slew it and then they put their hands and confessed
their sins on the head of the goat and the goat went off into
the wilderness by a fit man. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
He was our fit man. He was on whom our sins were
laid and we confess that we're sinners and we got no place to
put them but on Christ and our Lord Jesus Christ is our fit
man And as our substitute, our sins were laid on Him, and He
died on the cross, and He put all our sins, and He went into
the tomb, and when He come back out, there was none of them with
Him. And God said this, there's sins and iniquities I will remember
no more. Oh my, they had to have a priest
before they could go into the presence of God. And the priest
had to take the sacrifice. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our
high priest. And he entered in with his own
blood. Oh, he stood before God in our room. I've heard him said,
oh my goodness. You all heard him say it probably
thousands of times. You all just sit under his ministry
for something. He said, he was in our room and he was in our
stead. And now he says it God's right
hand and ministers to us and for us. He's our substitute.
And then not only were they redeemed by blood and redeemed by substitute,
but they were redeemed by purchase, by purchase. They had what they
called, the firstborn would have to bring a half a shekel, a half
of a shekel, a half of a shekel, and that was called redemption
money. That's a strange thing, strange thing. But our Lord Jesus
Christ was the one that redeemed us to God by his blood, not with
silver and gold. We didn't have to bring any money.
We had to bring any money. We didn't have to go to Aaron.
Our Lord Jesus Christ paid for us with his blood. And this is
the way the firstborn were redeemed by Passover, by substitute, by
purchase. And the firstborn, the firstborn
have very, very special privileges, special privileges that the other
family members didn't. You know what the firstborn got?
They got a double portion of whatever their father had, a
double portion. The rest of the kids, they got
some things, but the firstborn, he got twice as much as anybody
else. Huh? It's like Elisha. He was the spiritual son of Elijah.
And Elijah, he knew that Elijah was going to be taken to glory.
And he followed Elijah everywhere he was. And Elijah kept telling
him, he said, go back, go back, go back. And he said, nope, I'm
not going to do it. I'm going to stay right with you. And when he was
taken away, he said, before you go, give me a double portion
of your spirit. And he says, you've asked for
it. And boy, I tell you, he went away and he received a double
portion of Elijah's spirit. And I tell you what, we get twice,
twice what anybody else gets. Now listen to me. God's good
to all men. He causes the rain to fall on
the just and the unjust, on the good and on the evil. God blesses
a wicked man to raise as much corn as he does a righteous man. He blesses a wicked man as much
to raise good cattle and hogs as he does a righteous man. But
he's especially especially good to His own. Huh? I don't like,
you know, people talk about this common grace, that God gives
all men common grace. There's nothing common about
grace. No, no. No, no. He's good to all men.
But He said He is good, God is good to Israel. Good to Israel. He gives us special grace, peculiar
grace, free grace, sovereign grace, eternal grace. Blessed
Grace. And the firstborn, here's another
thing about the firstborn. They got double portion, but
they had the privilege of the priesthood. The firstborn in
the family was the one who had had the spiritual responsibility
for everybody else in the home. The special, the priesthood,
they was the one that had to be the priest over the family
and to provide the spiritual things for the family. Well,
you know what God says we are? He said we're made unto God,
kings and priests, kings and priests. And you know what we
offer as priests? We bring spiritual sacrifices,
not earthly sacrifice, not natural sacrifice. We bring spiritual
sacrifices and they acceptable to God have by our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now look, I want to show you
this. Look back over here in Hebrews 10. I want to show you a couple
of things here. And I want you to look at this.
Oh my, being the firstborn, what a blessed, blessed privilege.
Look what it says here now. You come unto Mount Zion, unto
the city of the living God. God's got a city. We're looking
for a city whose builder and maker is God. This is the heavenly
Jerusalem. Not that earthly Jerusalem. They
just said they're going to make that Jerusalem over there, you
know, the capital of Israel. But it always was. And all the
way through the Old Testament, it always was. And here we've
come to a heavenly Jerusalem. And oh my, you can't count the
number of angels. And we've also come to this,
the General Assembly. Oh, this great, great assembly.
And Church of the Firstborn. Now here's the first thing. Their
names are written in heaven. And then in the margin it says
in Romans. know people go to school and
have to enroll in school you know you have to enroll in this
enroll in that got enrolled in medicaid and medicaid and got
enrolling all that stuff but oh listen we didn't enroll in
this god enrolled us our names were written oh my noses wrote
down the names of the firstborn under the law he said all these
are the firstborn here but the elect's name are written under
the lord's name And our Lord Jesus Christ is the head. And
our names are right under His. And we are linked to Him as the
firstborn. And look at their assembly. Oh,
that's a great assembly. Who we've come to? We've come
to the general assembly. What an assembly of saints there
is there. In verse 23. Oh, not only that,
but we've come to the judge of all. Ah my, we've come to God. He's the judge of everything.
And as the judge, Most folks are scared to death to go in
front of a judge. But we're not afraid to go in
front of this judge. We come to this judge. He's judge
of all. He's done judged us. He's done
judged all those names who are written in the book. He's done
judged all those names that come under Mount Zion. He's done judged
all those that are the church of the firstborn. And oh, listen,
he goes on to say, and we've come to the spirits of just men
made perfect. And oh, who are these? Only the
redeemed. There, when they're gathered
around there, they're all holy. There's no pain. There's no tears. There's no sighs. There's no
sorrow. And you know what it says? It's
in the United Assembly, the General Assembly. They're united. There's
no schisms here. And listen to what else it says
we've come to. We've come to Jesus. We've come
to Jesus. We've come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the mediator. He's the one. that goes between us and God.
He's the mediator of this new covenant. Moses was the mediator
of the old covenant, of law. Christ the mediator of the new
covenant, living covenant. And not only we come to Jesus,
the mediator of the new covenant, the covenant of grace, but we've
come to the blood of sprinkling. I preached on that last week,
if I'm not mistaken, about the blood of the sprinkling, where
the blood was sprinkled on the book, the blood was sprinkled
on the people, the blood was sprinkled on everything in the
tabernacle, on all the vessels. We've come to that blood of sprinkling.
And listen to what it says about the blood of sprinkling, the
blood of Christ. Oh, it speaks much, much better things than
that of Abel. Oh my, what a blessed thing to be in the church of
the firstborn. And what a privilege, what a
blessing to be the firstborn, the firstborn. Our blessed Savior, O gracious
Father in heaven, thank you for allowing us to preach the gospel
today. Thank you for allowing us to mention your holy name,
to speak of you and what you've done for your people, the great
love and the great sacrifice you make for them. And Lord,
we bless you that you teach us these precious truths of what
it is to be firstborn of God and all the privileges we have.
inheritance we have, new birth we have, all the things you've
done for us. Father, we thank you for it.
God bless the gospel to the hearts and minds of those gathered out
here today. We ask in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.