Now in our lesson this morning,
we begin, and we have throughout the lesson, warnings. Dan and
John and I were talking Wednesday night after the service about
these warnings to believers being necessary. If they weren't necessary,
God wouldn't have put them in His Word. They're necessary.
These warnings are good for us, lest we presume they cause an
appropriate amount of fear and reverence. But in the same passage,
while there's warnings on one side to cause fear and reverence,
in the same passage there's grace that gives hope and comfort too. So verse 25 is where we begin. See that you refuse not him that
speaketh, 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. Now I've heard preachers use
the beginning of this verse to scare people into listening to
them and supporting their ministry. You know, don't refuse him that
speaketh, they say. And there is an element of truth
in that without question. We'd be fools to refuse to hear
the man that God sent to us to preach the gospel. That'd be
utter foolishness. But stressing that about yourself,
is pretty self-important. You know, when Israel wanted
a king, Samuel was distraught. And the Lord told him, he said,
Samuel, they've not rejected you. They rejected me. And that's
what this is talking about. This is not talking about not
hearing the servants. This is talking about see that
you don't refuse to hear the master. This is God speaking. This is hearing and believing
him whose blood speaks better things than that of Abel's."
That's where we ended the lesson last week. The prior verse says,
"...but the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel." Now see that you refuse not him that speaketh.
This blood that speaketh better things than that of Abel. This
is refusing to hear none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. See
that you refuse not him now. And you think of the times that
he has spoken. The mediator of the better covenant
than that covenant of the law. Christ spoke in the council halls
of eternity. He spoke for his elect. He said,
Father, I'll redeem them. I'll be surety for them. He spoke
and created the worlds out of nothing. Let there be light.
And there was light. He spoke, we read about last
week, from Mount Sinai and gave the law in that darkness and
tempest the voice of a trumpet. He came to earth incarnate and
spoke as God's prophet, revealing the Father to us. He spoke through
His apostles and through the prophets as they wrote the Scriptures.
He speaks to us through His Word. By His Spirit, He speaks to us
through the Word, through the Word preached. And right now,
He's speaking in glory, interceding for His people. So refuse not
Him that speaketh, because listen now, This is God speaking. This is not some mere man. This
is God. How foolish it would be to refuse
to hear God speaking. This is God speaking, not the
law at Sinai. This is God speaking, telling
us how sin is forgiven. Now that would be mighty foolish
to refuse to hear that. How sins can be forgiven. Sinners would be foolish to refuse
to hear that. God speaking to dead men and
women, telling us where eternal life is found. This is God telling
us how a man can be just with God. Both the speaker and the
subject are better, aren't they? It would be the height of foolishness
to refuse to hear Christ speak. But you know men do. If left
our nature, that's exactly what we do. Look over in John chapter
1. If we're left to our nature,
that's exactly what we'll do. Refuse to hear him at speaking. In John 1, verse 11. He came
into his own and his own received him not. They refused to hear
him. Look over another page or two. Chapter 3 of John, verse
19. And this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light. because their deeds were evil.
They refused to hear him that spoke. Well, more scripture in
John chapter 5, verse 43. I'm come in my father's name
and ye receive me not. If another should come in his
own name, him you'll receive. But I'm come in my father's name
and you won't receive him. You won't hear. Well, how can
we? today refuse to hear Him that
speaketh. He speaks to us through His Word,
through the Gospel. And the Gospels refuse through
unbelief. By not believing the Word preached,
the Word that we read, Israel, that nation Israel, refused Him
that spoke and what happened to them. They refused to hear
Him that spoke through unbelief. And because of their unbelief,
their carcasses fell in the wilderness. And we refuse Him that speaketh
through unbelief. The gospel is refused when it's
neglected, when it's shown indifference, when we show up just going through
the motions. We refuse to hear Him that speaketh.
The gospel is refused when it's neglected and it's allowed to
become perverted through covetousness. And I can't stress enough how
important this is to truly hear and understand and believe Him
that speaketh. Not just hearing a man who uses
the right jargon and terminology and so forth, but hearing God
speak through the Word and believing Him. It's not just hearing someone
say things or hear things that might be doctrinally true. This
is preaching Christ and believing Christ and Him alone. You know,
one time God spoke on earth. to Israel. On that Mount Sinai
there on earth, He spoke. He spoke in the tempest and the
darkness. He spoke the law. And the people didn't want to
hear anymore. They didn't want to hear anymore because they
couldn't bear what they were hearing. And they wanted Moses
to be their mediator. So God said, alright, He brought
Moses to the mountain. He spoke to the people through
Moses. They wouldn't hear Him neither. They refused to hear
Him too. And because of their unbelief, like I said a minute
ago, their carcasses fell in the wilderness. Now if Israel,
that nation Israel, could not escape God's justice when they
heard him speak from earth, when they heard him speak the law,
how much more sure are we not to escape if we neglect to hear
him who speaks from heaven? How much more sure are we not
to escape God's justice if we refuse to hear the gospel? Israel
didn't want to hear any more of the law. And I can understand
that. The law has no good news for
a human being. But we've got no reason not to
want to hear more of the Gospel. We've got no reason to refuse
the good news of the Gospel. There's no hope for anyone who
refuses grace. And I thought of this illustration
this week. Suppose you went to the doctor.
And the doctor sat down with you and told you, he said, I've
got bad news. You've got terminal illness. There's no hope. There's
no cure. There's nothing we can do for
you. We don't know anything about this disease. The only thing
we know about it is it runs its normal course. You've got about
three months to live. Well, you don't want to hear
any more, do you? There's no point sitting around
talking about it. Nothing can be done. You can't
bear to constantly hear that death sentence over and over
and over. You're not going to go back to
him tomorrow. He's already told you there's nothing I can do
for you. Everything he said is true, isn't
it? Nothing he said was false. But you don't want to listen
anymore. You're just going to, if you do what I do, just go
and enjoy whatever time you have left. But suppose, in a day or
two, a doctor comes and knocks on your door. He says, I've got
good news. We found the cure. We found the
cure for your disease. And Andy, there's no side effects.
There's no side effects to this cure. The cure is not going to
kill you. Matter of fact, it's going to taste good. And it's
free. There's no insurance red tape
to cut through. No insurance pre-certification to worry about.
As a matter of fact, we're not even going to bill your insurance.
It's free. Now what would happen if you
refused to hear Him that spoke? You'd die, wouldn't you? The
only hope you have of life is in Him that speaks. Well, that's
what this is saying. Refusing to hear Christ. is going
to bring eternal death. Because life is found in Him.
The message of Him. The message that He brings when
He speaks. So see that you refuse not Him
that speaketh. Now there's a warning. Don't
refuse Him that speaketh. But here's the grace. He speaks. He speaks to you and me. That's grace. See that you refuse
not Him that speaketh. Now verse 26, whose voice then
shook the earth. But now he hath promised, saying
yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. Now God spoke from Sinai. We
read this last week. The earth shook from the voice
and sound of that trumpet and the thunder and the tempest.
But you know, that wasn't the only time God said he's going
to shake the earth. Look back at Haggai chapter two.
Now I've got that mark. Haggai is right at the end of
the Old Testament, or near the end. Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. You've got the authorized version,
that's page 1168. Haggai, chapter 2. God, in prophecy, told about
another time He's going to shake the earth. In verse 2, or verse
6 of chapter 2. For thus saith the Lord of hosts,
yet once, it's a little while, And I will shake the heavens,
and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will shake
all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come. And I
will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." What's
he talking about there? He's talking about the first
coming of Christ. When Christ came incarnate, the
earth was shaken. A new star appeared in the heavens. Angels appeared and a glorious
host sang the praises of our God. The earth was shaken. And at the end of his time on
earth, as he gave up the ghost, he hung his head and gave up
the ghost, what happened? The earth shook. He shook the
earth. And one more time, the earth
is going to be shaken when he returns. Look over in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 50. Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet
shall sound. What's that trump? That's the
same voice of a trumpet Israel heard. The voice of a trump speaks
the earth is going to be shaken, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible and shall be changed. The earth is going to be shaken. 2 Peter chapter 3. Peter tells
us something quite similar. 2 Peter chapter 3. Verse 10. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise. They'll be shaken and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works
that are therein shall be burned up. Now seeing then that all
these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought
ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and
hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens
being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat? When he returns, the earth will
be shaken." That's the warning, isn't it? The earth will be shaken,
but here's the grace. When God speaks in mercy and
grace to His people, our hearts are shaken. That heart is stirred
up in awe at God's unspeakable grace and mercy and love to sinners
like you and me. That shakes his dark core. It
stirs up the new heart to worship and praise and adoration, doesn't
it? When God speaks, when he speaks
to his people, that's the reaction. Now, verse 27, And this word
yet once more signifyeth the removing of those things that
are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which
cannot be shaken may remain. Now Paul says in this word yet
once more, maybe a better translation of that is, in a little while,
in just a little while, these things are going to be shaken.
It's going to be so soon. Everything that can be shaken
and destroyed will be shaken and destroyed. But what things
can be shaken? Well, everything. Everything
in creation is going to be shaken and destroyed. God's going to,
we just read it, going to create a new heaven and a new earth
wherein dwells righteousness. I'll tell you what else will
be shaken. Every legal, religious ceremony, form of worship, every
man-made form of worship will be shaken and destroyed and taken
away. The great city Jerusalem, Solomon's
great temple, that prestigious priesthood, has already all been
destroyed, hasn't it? It is no more. There's no more
priesthood. There's no more sacrifice. There's no more Ark of the Covenant.
Those things are gone. They've been shaken and destroyed
already. And in a little while, every
other form of man-made religion and everything we see in creation
is going to be destroyed and taken out of the way. It will
be destroyed because everything that's been tainted with sin
is going to be wiped away. And God will create a new heaven
and a new earth. Now that's the warning. Don't get too attached
to these things now because they'll be shaken and destroyed. But
here's the grace. There are those things that cannot
be shaken, that cannot be removed. All these other things are going
to be removed, Paul says, that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain. Well, what are those things that
are going to remain? Everything that's built on the Lord Jesus
Christ, the eternal rock of ages. Those things cannot be shaken.
The priesthood of Christ, that can't be shaken and removed.
We studied that back in Hebrews chapter 7. He's a priest after
the order of Melchizedek. He has an unchangeable priesthood.
The one who represents us to God, his priesthood cannot be
shaken. And everything that comes through
him to us is eternal. Those things cannot be removed.
The adoption of sons. cannot be removed. We've been
adopted into God's family and that cannot be removed and reversed.
You can't go back to your birth mother. This is eternal. Justification,
salvation, the forgiveness of sins, sanctification, those things
cannot be shaken or removed. The church, the body of Christ,
that'll never be removed and never be shaken because our head
won't be shaken or removed. Look over Matthew 24. God's Word. This will not be shaken. It never
will. That's why I like teaching the
Word. Going verse by verse. You can't go wrong with this.
It cannot be shaken. It never will go out of style.
I was watching on the History Channel and they talked about
things that they present. Sometimes their information gets
outdated or gets, you know, it's wrong. And they go back and edit
that show to put in correct information that they newly discovered. This
will never change. That will never happen. You never
have to edit a word of this. It's eternal. It won't be shaken.
In Matthew 24 verse 35, Heaven and earth, this creation, shall
pass away. But my words shall not pass away. This is eternal. Look over in
1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter 1, verse 3. The believer's
inheritance in Christ is eternal. It won't be shaken and taken
away from you. 1 Peter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead to an inheritance. Now listen to the description
of our inheritance. It's incorruptible, undefiled, and it fadeth not
away. It's reserved in heaven for you
who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. These things that we deal
with here are vital. They're eternal. Our jobs and
our family responsibilities and responsibilities in this life,
these things are important. But they pale in comparison to
this. These things are eternal. They're
vital. My family one day won't be here.
My job one day, that building one day won't be here. This is
forever. Now it's important. We need to
give earnest heed to it. So verse 28 back in our text. Hebrews 12, Wherefore, we receiving
a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace. whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Now,
God's elect have been received into the kingdom of God's dear
Son. That's what Paul said in his letter to the church at Colossae
in Colossians chapter 1. He says, giving thanks unto the
Father which hath made us meet fit to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. who has delivered us from the
power of darkness and has translated us, transferred us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. That's the kingdom that we have
received, that we've been received into. Now this kingdom is another
one of those eternal things. It'll never be shaken. It's got
foundations that are built on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we've
been received into this kingdom. Now no believer, I don't care
who you are or when you've lived, no believer was born the first
time worthy of being received into this kingdom. Not one of
us. But God in grace gave us a new
citizenship. He gave us a new nature. There's
a whole lot more than just giving us a new address. He gave us
a new nature. We've been made citizens with
all the rights and privileges of natural born citizens. We
belong here. And that's really what we are
by God's grace in our second birth. Natural born citizens. We belong here by God's grace. Now, seeing all these things
are true, that's an amazing statement, but it's true. Let's hold fast
to the gospel of God's grace that we've been given. And Paul
says here, let us have grace. The actual translation of that
is let us hold fast to the grace, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now hold fast to this. This is
dear and important to us. Look over 2 Timothy. How many
times did the Apostle Paul tell young Timothy to hold fast to
this? We're going to look at a few
of them. 2 Timothy 1. Verse 13. Paul tells this young
man, you hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast
heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. And
that good thing which was committed unto thee, you keep it by the
Holy Ghost which dwelt in us." Timothy, you hold fast to this
now. Chapter 2, verse 1, Thou therefore,
my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And
the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the
same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach
others also. You hold on to this now and you
teach it to the next generation. You teach it to others so they
can continue to teach it. You hold it fast. Chapter 3,
verse 13. But evil men and seducers shall
wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But don't
you be like them. Continue thou in the things that
thou hast learned and has been assured of. knowing of whom thou
hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the Holy
Scriptures. See, he learned it from Paul,
but where did he really learn it? Paul says from the Holy Scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith
which is in Christ Jesus. You hold these things fast. In
one more, chapter four, verse one, I charge thee therefore
before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick
and the dead at His appearing in His kingdom. You preach the
Word. Timothy, you hang on to this
and you preach the Word. Always, be instant, in season,
out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine. You hang on to this now. And
that's not just for preachers. That's not just for Timothy.
That's for all of us. You hang on to this now. Believers
are never to take a casual attitude about worship. We're never to
take a casual attitude about hearing the gospel preached.
Paul says, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence
and godly fear. We're not to have a casual attitude
about this. We have a desire to worship and
serve our Lord. This is not duty, it's joy. But
take it seriously. We're to offer service that pleases
Him. Every believer has a desire to
serve Him. We'll see that you do it in a
way that pleases Him. We have a desire to worship.
Well, let's make sure we worship that pleases Him according to
His Word. And do it with godly fear. Remember, now we come before
our Lord. He's our Lord. He's our Redeemer.
We love Him. We know from His Word He loves
us. But remember, He's God. He is God Almighty. And as God,
He deserves all of our praise, all of our adoration, all of
our worship. And that's the warning to us. Be careful now how we
worship. You apply your hearts to this.
This is serious business. But the grace is that God in
mercy has enabled us to worship Him. In spirit and in truth,
He sent us a pastor. He sent us the Gospel. Hold fast
to it. Hang on to it tightly. Treat
it like a treasure that it is. In verse 29, for our God is a
consuming fire. We know God does not change,
don't we? He's the same yesterday, today
and forever. We know He doesn't change. The
revelation of God that Israel saw on Mount Sinai, He hadn't
changed. He's the same God with whom we
have to do the exact same one. God is a consuming fire. That's
the way Israel saw him. That's the way he is today. He
hasn't changed. His justice, the justice that they were scared
of, the justice that they could not bear, is the same today. His justice will consume all
sin. And he's a jealous God. He's
jealous of his glory. There's none that can compare
to him. He ought to be jealous of his glory. And he can only
be approached in the way that He prescribes, in the way He
gives us. God is God. So He has the right
to declare, to set forth the way that He is to be worshipped.
He's not to be worshipped in some way that seems good to us,
that seems, you know, very holy and pious and religious and impressive
to us. He's to be worshipped in the
way He prescribes. And anyone who tries to come
to God any other way than the way God's given in His Word is
going to be utterly destroyed. They're going to meet the consuming
fire of God's wrath. So be mighty careful how you
approach Him. And you dwell on that, that'll
scare us to death, won't it, if you dwell on that. That's
the warning, who God is and who we are. That difference makes
it so we've got to be awful careful how we come to Him. Because in
ourselves, we can't. That consuming fire would just
consume us. But here's the grace. Paul says,
for our God is a consuming fire. He's our God. We belong to him
and he belongs to us. We've been put in him. He's taken
us under his protective wing. He's put us in his kingdom. He's
made himself responsible for our eternal well-being. He's
our God. The holy, eternal, infinite God
has set His love upon a people. Think of that. He's made Himself
our God. He's made us His children. He's
made Himself to be our Father. That's the way our Lord taught
us to pray. Our Father, which art in heaven. He's not somebody
else's Father down the street. He's our Father. He's the head
of our home. He's our Father who loves us
and provides for us and protects us and teaches us like a father
does his children. As a father pitieth his children,
so he pities us. Now he's a consuming fire, but
he is a wall of fire around his people to protect us, to consume
his enemies and protect his little ones. At the same time he's a
consuming fire to his enemies, That fire gives His children
warmth. We don't come to the dead coldness
of the law that you find carved in tables of stone. We come to
the warmth of life in Christ. At the same time, that consuming
fire is bringing judgment to His enemies. It gives light to
His people. Light that we can see by. And
this consuming fire does not consume God's elect. Now, it'll
burn to draw us off, but it'll never consume us. It won't consume
us because the fire of God's justice fell on Christ, our substitute. Now, a fire needs fuel to burn,
doesn't it? In the Old Testament, when they
had the sacrifice, the fire would consume the wood and the sacrifice.
But when there is no more wood, when there's no more fuel, the
fire went out, doesn't it? The fire of God's wrath fell
on our substitute. But, you know, that fire didn't
consume him. I don't remember who said this, but it's worth
repeating. The fire didn't consume him.
He consumed the fire. That fire burnt itself out on
Christ our substitute. The fire's gone and he remains
seated at the Father's right hand. And we're seated in him.
Outside of Christ, God's a consuming fire. But in Christ, He's our
God. He's our Father. He protects
us. He gives us warmth. Gives us
life. Gives us light to see by. That's the warning and the blessing. All in the same word to His children. I hope I have blessed you.