The book of Hebrews, and let's
begin reading. We'll read there in verse 15.
It says, This is chapter 12. Hebrews 12, 15. 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. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be
touched, that burned with fire, and are under 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 touch
the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through the dark. And
so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear
and quake. But ye are come unto Mount Sinai,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
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, 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 the heaven.
And this word yet once more signifying the removing of those things
that are shaken as of those things that are made, that those things
which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore, 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. Now, it is quite often taught
and kind of assumed by a lot of people as they read the Bible
that God changed between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
I mean, you've all heard how people would say, well, you know,
the God of the Old Testament, He's a God of wrath and fire
and all of those things, but the God of the New Testament
is a God of love and forgiveness and grace and mercy. And that's
a simplistic manner in which men would look at the Scriptures,
but there's not really any truth in that at all because God is
God. He changes not. He's not one
way part of it through history and one way through the rest
of history. But God is the same God who created
the heavens and the earth in the beginning, is the same one
who shall in the end bring all of that to an end and will set
forth new heavens and new earth according to the good pleasure
of his will. And so there is no changing with God. And in
fact, as we read here and as we read this book of this particular
chapter of Hebrews, where the writer makes the contrast between
the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, which was that mount that
could be touched, that one which you could see, That was something
that was set forth in the eyes of men that was of the earth,
and it was right there in their eyes, just like the law was given
in a natural way unto men. In fact, the Scripture says that
the law of God is written in the hearts of men, so that they're
without excuse. And we've talked about this before.
Now, every man doesn't have the Ten Commandments written in his
heart. But every man has the law of God written in his heart.
Now, the law of God and the Ten Commandments are not identically
the same thing. The Ten Commandments arise out
of the law of God, and they are a summation of the law of God
insofar as men are concerned as to a demonstration. But the purpose of the giving
of the law was so that man might discover what he is by nature. The Lord said to Adam, don't
eat. I've given you, you can eat all
these trees, but don't eat of this one, the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. Now, what did Adam do? Why did Adam eat from that tree? Because that was the way that
he was. The Lord would show that natural
man cannot inherit the kingdom of God. That was the demonstration. That's the demonstration of the
giving of the law. Why did the Lord give the Ten
Commandments to the nation of Israel? Did he give the Ten Commandments
to the nation of Israel believing and thinking that they were going
to keep that? No, He gave that to them so that
they were a blessed people because, you see, the Lord showed them
what His righteousness was in a manner in which He didn't show
to the rest of the world. And He demonstrated to them through
the law their inability to approach unto Him. Now we know that by
nature and according to the ways of men that we always take the
things of God which are actually so very plain and we twist and
turn them and make them into something that they are not.
And so it is. that the contrast that's given
here is He says, you've not come unto a mount that might be touched. That is, what we're preaching
to you is not that which can be grasped and entered into by
the natural man. Now the natural man sitting there
before Mount Sinai, he could see the fire and the smoke and
he could see all of those things that went on there and he could,
wondering at it, He could look at it, but he goes on to say,
here you've not come unto the mount that might be touched.
That is, you've not come to a natural thing. This is the kingdom of
God is not of flesh and blood. But he said, but you, as he comes
down here, but ye, in verse 22, he said, but ye are come unto
Mount Zion. and unto the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to 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." Now that's not something that
can be touched, dear brother. That's something that has to
be revealed. That's something that has to
be brought into the awareness of a man. and written into the
very fabric of His being. That's why the Lord said to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, ye must be born again. Now Nicodemus had no idea what
he was talking about. But the Lord said that to Nicodemus
before Nicodemus ever got to ask a question, didn't He? I
mean, Nicodemus said, we know you're a teacher sent from God.
He said, hold on, Nicodemus. He said, Nicodemus, unless you
be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. So Nicodemus,
he was taken aback from the start. Now, that's really the place
that a man's got to be brought to in order for him to ever come
to any understanding of spiritual things, is to be brought to that
place that he understands that this is not a mountain that can
be touched. You can't figure this out. You can't learn it
like men learned the gospel line upon line, precept upon precept,
here a little and there a little. The Lord said, The day is coming
when I will write my laws in their hearts and in their minds,
and they shall no more teach every man his neighbor know the
Lord, for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest.
Now what was he talking about? He was talking about the fact
that the Spirit of God would teach His people. the things
of God. And that's what the Lord said
when He said that He was sending the Spirit. He said that when
the Spirit has come, He will lead you into all truth. And
you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Now, again, in the natural way
that men often approach that scripture, they say, Oh, yeah,
the truth will set you free. Well, the truth won't set you
free, dear brethren. Here's the truth. The truth is recorded right here.
But the truth, this Bible won't set you free. But when the Spirit
of God takes those things that are contained in that and He
opens your understanding to the place where you can grasp and
see what that is by grace according to His mercy, then indeed, if
the Lord makes you free, then you shall be free indeed. Because this is not a mount that
can be touched. It's not something that a man
can accomplish on his own or figure out a way to do it. It's
not some three-step formula that if you do this, God will do that. But it is God in mercy will visit
His people, and He will awaken them from the deadness of their
sins, and He will cause them to see what they are by nature,
and He will bring them to the place where they will call upon
His name. He'll find them. He won't leave
a one. He said, My sheep hear My voice. Now how can they hear His voice
if He doesn't speak to them? The Lord is going to speak to
His people, is He not? The Lord knoweth them that are
His, and He is going to bring them out from every kindred,
tribe, nation, and tongue on the earth. He will call them
according to the good pleasure of His will at the appointed
time. And when they hear, they will
come, and they will say, Lord, Who art thou? And He'll teach
them, and He'll show them. You see, if there's a man who's
hungry and thirsting after righteousness, he got that way because of the
Spirit of God working in him. And if he got that way because
of the Spirit of God working in him, then the Lord will complete
the work that he began. You see, a man's not going to
hunger and thirst after God. apart from the work of the Spirit
of God in him. Now you always, when we get this
preaching about election and the fact that God has a people
that He chose from before the foundation of the world, you
always got, and the natural man will always raise this objection
up. Well, so what you're saying is
that a man, he might want to believe, but because he's not
wanting to elect, he'll never believe. Scripture never talks
about anything like that. Because, you see, brethren, a
man will never believe apart from the grace and mercy of God
causing him to believe. And if a man does believe, he
evidences the fact that the Spirit of God is at work in him. But
those who do not believe They don't believe, they don't care.
I've never met a man yet that wanted to believe but couldn't. I know people say, oh, well I
just can't believe it. Well, that's true. See, a man
can't believe the things of God. That's what the Lord said to
the Pharisees. He said, and ye will not come
to me that ye might have life. They will not come. But dear
brethren, When the Lord is pleased to open a man's heart, He'll
come. He'll desire to come. You can't keep Him away. He'll
be like that woman, that Canaanite woman, or she wasn't a Canaanite,
but a Syrophoenician woman. She came to the Lord and said,
Lord, my daughter's possessed of a devil. He said, what are
you doing in here? He said, I'm not sent to anybody
but the lost sheep of the house of Israel. What are you doing
coming down here messing with me? And the Lord said, should
I give that food that's fit for the children and give it to dogs? Well, that was discouraging,
wasn't it? I mean, Lord, you're not being very kind to this woman. But you see, that was something
at work in this woman. She knew that this woman who
sat at that table had the thing that she needed. How did she
know that? Because the Spirit of God taught
her that. And she said, Lord, You're right. Now, you know, in this day of
political correctness, people would take offense at that, wouldn't
they? The Lord said, well, I don't give this to dogs. I mean, basically
He said, you're just a dog. Oh, well, who does He think He
is? Why? You know, no. She said, Lord,
you're right. But, oh, even the dogs. eat the
crumbs that fall from the Master's table." And he said, I have not
found so great faith in all of Israel than this woman that comes
right here. And he said, as he asked that
so it be done unto you. Now why? You see, Men can't approach, they have
no concept in by nature of what this faith is. But it is that
which is given to the people of God. Now when that Philippian
jailer cried out to Paul, he said, what must I do to be saved? Paul said, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now how did he, what moved
the Philippian jailer to cry out and say, What must I do to
be saved? How did he even know he needed
to be saved? Well, Paul never said anything
about my brother, you need to be saved. What happened? The Spirit of God came upon him,
and by the work of the grace of God, he was confronted with
his sin, and he knew himself to be lost. And when the Apostle Paul said,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, I believe. I believe. And he believed with all of his
That is just like the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip said, Well, if
you believe with all your heart, you may. But when he said, What
keeps me from being baptized? He said, Well, if you believe
with all your heart, you may. He says, I believe. How did he
know? What caused that? It was the
work of God, because you are not come unto Mount But you have
not come to Mount Sinai, but you have come to Mount Zion,
the city of the living God, the place where God dwells. Where
does God dwell? Scripture says He inhabiteth
eternity, but He also dwells with the broken and the contrite
in heart. Because you see, it pleased God
to dwell with His people. Why did... What is it that the
Lord hid Himself, the Scripture says? The Lord hid the truth. Well, I thought that the Lord
was just trying to get everybody to believe. Isn't that what we
hear nowadays? I mean, the Lord's just out here
just trying to get folks to believe and a lot of them won't. But
He's trying to get them to. The Lord Jesus, when He came,
He said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast hid these things
from the wise and the prudent. But He said, You've revealed
them unto me. Because you see, the Lord would reveal His truth
to His people. And He would manifest through
the hiding of the Word of God from those who cannot see He
would manifest the fact that this is not a mount which can
be touched, but it is a mount which only he can show. And that
is the magnification of grace, is it not? Because if a man could
just, according to his whim, as people tell us, there wouldn't
be any grace at all. If it was left up to the free
will of men just to do whatever they wanted to, where would grace
be? There'd be no grace in that. But the Lord will manifest His
grace because, you see, it's not the wise, it's not the prudent,
it's not those who think themselves worthy to enter the kingdom of
heaven that do. But it is to those whom the Lord
is pleased to show. And there's no such thing as
a proud man in the kingdom of heaven. No such thing. Because you see, those who are
brought in are those that know, apart from the grace of God,
they'd be destroyed. They know they have no standing,
they have no place. Why did the Pharisees, why did
they stumble? Because they believed themselves
to be righteous. Why do the Jews reject the Gospel
even to this day? Because they believe themselves
to be righteous. They think that by their deeds
and by their things that they do in these rituals, and that's
the way the religious world is, they think that by the things
they do they make themselves more pleasant unto the Lord. But the Lord will dwell with
those who are of a broken and a contrite heart. And the Scripture
says that we have been brought to Mount Zion, to the city of
the living God, that place where God is pleased to dwell. And
where is that? With His people. You see, the
kingdom of God is the nation of those true Jews who are circumcised
not in the flesh, but in the heart. The Lord is pleased to
dwell with His people, always has been, and He always will,
because they belong to Him. And we have been brought to the
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. John said that he
saw a city coming down out of heaven. like a bride adorned
for her husband. Now, some people think this is
a future event. I believe it's speaking about
the very fact that that's the gospel. That's what John saw. He saw the Lord coming down and
making His tabernacle with men. He saw the revelation and unfolding
of the purpose of God to dwell with His people. And that's the
place to which we've been called, dear brethren. That's the place...
You see, he's contrasting. For these Hebrew Christians,
he's saying, look, you know, this is the place that you came
in your heritage. But he said, here's where you
come by the grace of God. You've not been brought to that
which you could be raised up in and taught and follow and
find a place of acceptance with God, but you've been brought
to this Mount Zion, to a city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels." Now, the
word angels, to me, is a messenger, and angels are messengers. Now,
there are angels spoken of, as Brother Al pointed out there,
that are heavenly creatures, but that's not what he's talking
about here. He's not talking about to an innumerable company
of heavenly creatures. We've not been brought to the
heavenly creatures. Remember when John would worship?
The angel, and what did he say? He said, hey, don't worship me.
He said, I'm just a messenger. I've just been sent. But he's
not talking about that we've been brought to an innumerable
company of heavenly creatures, but rather to an innumerable
company of those who bear witness to the glory of God, those who
bear witness to the redemption of Christ. Because you see, all
of God's people bear witness to that. There are no secret
disciples. Those who inhabit the kingdom
of God are those who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of
all. The most glad thing that a child
of God can read is that every knee shall bow and every tongue
shall confess. That's a glorious thing. That's
what we want is the exaltation of Christ, not the exaltation
of men. to an innumerable company of
angels, a host of messengers. The psalmist said, let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. What do we do? Testify. Peter
said, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready to give
to every man a reason of the hope that is within you. Because
you see, we've been called to testify unto the glory of His
grace. May He ever give us strength
to do so. To the General Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn, the General Assembly, the gathering together
of the people of God from every nation and tongue. I was just
reading this morning about Paul writing to the Colossians. He
said this is the mystery that was hid from the foundation of
the world. And what was that mystery? that
the Lord had brought the gospel to all men, He says, to the Gentiles,
that to the Gentiles might be delivered this truth. You see,
the Jews thought that God just was blessing them. But you see,
they were at that mount that could be touched. That was what
they could see. They had no understanding because
God had not revealed it yet. that he had a people from every
kindred, tribe, and tongue, and they were but a type and a foreshadow
of the true nation of Israel. See, Israel thought they were
Israel. They didn't understand that they were just a temporary. people that the Lord was pleased
to use as an illustration of the great love that He had for
that people, whose names, as He says here, are the General
Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven.
Now, how did they get written in heaven? Now, I've heard that
explained that when a man believes, God writes his name down in heaven.
It's too late. It's too late because the Scripture
says that those names were recorded from before the foundation of
the world. They were written there in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. Well,
how did he know? How did they know whose name
was right in there? What if somebody changed their
mind? You know how free will works. You might be one thing
one day and one thing the next. How did they know? Well, in you,
because He ordained it to be so. And because He ordained it
to be so, it must be so. And all of those whom He loved
with an everlasting love, He draws with cords of love and
He causes them to come to the place where they love Him. How does that happen? The grace
of God, the mercy of God, the drawing power. You see, a man
has no delight in the things of God unless God gives it to
him. Oh, he can be religious. Folks
are religious every day. We're not talking about religion.
We're talking about delighting in the glory of God revealed
in the face of Jesus Christ, a precious a precious word unto
those who are of the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn,
out of every tribe, kindred, and tongue in the earth which
are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to
the spirits of just men made perfect." God is the Judge of
all. All men shall stand before Him
and give account. Now, that is a fearful thing
to contemplate, dear brethren, if we're going to stand before
Him and give an account of ourselves. I wouldn't look forward to that
at all, would you? Now, some people look forward
to it. I've shared this with you before. A man told me, I
asked him, well, what was his hope of entered into heaven,
he said he was just going to tell the Lord that he always
tried to do the best. He is looking forward to his
day in court. You see, he is looking forward
to pleading his case. Well, dear brethren, any man
that has ever been acquainted with his own wickedness and his
own depravity would not look forward to a day in court to
try to plead with God as to why he ought to enter into heaven.
But you see, He is the God, He is the Judge of all men. And
the Lord said that in that day that He would put the goats on
His left side and the sheep on His right. And those who are
His sheep, they won't say a word. Because you see, they're standing
there in Christ. And when the Lord When He looks
on the Son, when the Father looks on the Son, what does He see?
He sees perfection. He sees the apple of His eye.
He sees the one that He has loved eternally, because He is eternal. He is one with the Father, and
He sees those whom He loved in Christ, and He sees them not. in their carnal sin, but he sees
them in the perfect righteousness of Christ. That's the only way
he sees the people of God. He sees us in Christ, dear Brandon.
And that's the glorious place it was. Now, if you knew ahead
of time that you were going to be, what do you call it, acquitted,
or judged perfectly and had never done anything wrong, you'd look
forward to going to court, wouldn't you? If you knew somebody was
going to stand in your place and plead your case, who never
lost a case and was the son of the judge, I mean, you know,
that'd be a glorious thing there, brethren. That's the place we've
been brought, to God the judge of all men. And that's not a
fearful thing to come into the judgment if we're justified. If we know we're right by the
grace of God and owing totally to the righteousness of Christ,
we know that He is satisfied. And so we come there. We're brought
there to the spirits of just men made perfect. How are we made perfect? Only
one way. And that is through the perfections,
the beauties and the glories of Jesus Christ. And dear brethren,
that's the place we've been brought. Not to the mountain might be
touched, but to the grace of God, the mercy of God revealed
in Jesus Christ as that One who is our substitute.