Okay, well, we come back to Zechariah
chapter 14. We had one message a couple of
weeks ago before we were away last week. But let me just remind
you briefly. The purpose of the book of Zechariah,
the prophecy of Zechariah, was in its historical context at
the time, and we're talking 500 to 550 years before Christ came,
before he was born, the purpose of this was to motivate the returned
captives to Judah, the captives that had been taken away in the
Babylonian captivity of Nebuchadnezzar for their 70 years of exile,
and then God raised up Cyrus, the king, The Babylonians were
replaced by the Medes and the Persians, and Cyrus was one of
those. And hundreds of years before,
in the prophecy of Isaiah, God said, I will raise up my servant
Cyrus. And Cyrus was raised up. And
Cyrus, a heathen king, said, you to go back to Jerusalem and
you to build the temple and they went back and they met opposition
and their motivation flagged and they got tired and they gave
up and it took years and it didn't go ahead and God gave Haggai
and Zechariah to motivate the people to work and to rebuild
the ruined temple 500 years plus before Christ came and they were
very successful in the purpose of this as a motivator it was
very successful it motivated them They completed the work.
The capstone was put on. They cried, grace, grace unto
it. And it stood, that temple stood
until A.D. 70. The Jews said to Jesus, it
was 45 years in the building. How are you going to say that
you knock it down, you'll braze it in three days? He was talking
about his body. But in that situation, it actually
was destroyed again in A.D. 70 by the Romans. The Romans
destroyed it exactly as the prophecy of Daniel said. Why was it there? The Messiah must come. Jesus
walked in this temple. It must be completed. He preached
the gospel in this temple. He, there in Jerusalem, because
Nehemiah came and finished the walls of Jerusalem, and there
in Jerusalem, He was crucified for the sins of his people. Why
is this relevant? Two and a half thousand years
old, these writings. Two and a half thousand years
old. And I think you can all agree from when Peter read chapter
14 earlier, it's full of some mysterious things. It's not easy. It's very difficult. passage
of scripture. But why is it relevant? It's
relevant to you and to me today because it's a picture of the
kingdom of God triumphant. You know what Jesus came preaching.
You know what John the Baptist came preaching. The kingdom of
God is at hand. The kingdom of God. This world
isn't it? This world is just a temporal
existence. Eternity is the kingdom of God and this is a picture
of the kingdom of God triumphant. And what do I mean by that? I
mean that God in Christ. Because how do we know God? We
don't know him apart from Christ. We only know him in Christ. It's
God in Christ accomplishing the just qualification of a multitude
that he loved before the beginning of time. You can't deny that's
what the scripture says. It's as clear as daylight on
every page that he qualified that people for citizenship of
his kingdom. And he brings in the blessings
of peace peace through the blood of Christ, righteousness, for
he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we, his people,
might be made the righteousness of God in him. I feel dreadful
in myself, I feel a sinner in myself, but I know in the justice,
in the court of God, I know that I'm counted the righteousness
of God in him, so that I can have communion with God for eternity. What's this about? What's this
book about? It's about its immediate historical context. I know that
two and a half thousand years ago, but what's it about? Jesus
said, these are they which speak of me. All of the Old Testament
scriptures. Search the scriptures. These
are they which speak of me. You who believe rest in this. We rest in this. It is food for
our souls. It is a blessing for our souls. We can say, it is well, it is
well with my soul. But listen, if you disbelieve,
you are the enemy of God. If you disbelieve, you align
with the world, the kingdom of Satan. The nations which are
here, in verse two, I will gather all nations against Jerusalem
to battle. Verse three, the Lord shall go
forth and fight against those nations. Verse 12, is it? Verse 12, and this shall be the
plague wherewith the Lord shall smite all the people that have
fought against Jerusalem. It's talking about those nations.
It's the people who don't believe God, the people who are not God's
people. This is whom he will fight with.
Why will he fight with them? Why is it? Why is it? Why is
it? Because divine justice, the holiness and righteousness of
God is violated by sin. It's violated by sin and it must
be punished. All rebellion against God, all
sin, all refusal to submit to divine righteousness must be
balanced. with divine justice. It must
be balanced. So, in Isaiah 40, when God says,
comfort my people, you shall receive double for your sins,
it doesn't mean double the punishment, it means the mirror image, that
in Christ, exactly what your sins require in the justice of
God has been paid. That's what it means. And so
it brings the sinner under the conviction of God the Holy Spirit,
if he's gracious to you, to say, I am guilty, I'm deserving of
condemnation, I'm deserving of eternal separation from God,
for I in myself, as Peter said to the Lord, he said, depart
from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. It's knowing that we deserve
eternal separation. And this causes the question
to scream out from the soul, the question of Job, How can
a man be just with God? How can I know that I am just
with God? Because is that not what my soul
needs? My life progresses. I know the end. It is appointed
to man to die once and then the judgment. How can I be found
just with God? Verse 1 of chapter 14. Answer
to this question, how can I be found just with God? The day
of the Lord cometh. The day of the Lord, what's he
talking about? He says it again and again throughout this prophecy,
the day of the Lord. What's the day of the Lord? It's
the day of salvation. It's this time-space existence
in which God redeemed his people from the curse of the law. in
which God himself purchased his church with his own blood. God
doesn't have blood. No, he doesn't, as a spirit.
But as Christ he does. That's why he became man. He
became what he wasn't before, that he might have blood. He
shed blood, for the life is in the blood. The day of the Lord
cometh, that day of salvation. It's that day in which he died
on the cross 2,000 years ago. It's that day in which he rose
from the dead and ascended on high. It's that day when he sent
his spirit out upon the churches. It's today, for 2 Corinthians
6 verse 2 says, today is the day of salvation. Salvation? Rescue. If you're bobbing around
down there in the sea, as rough as it was the other day, you're
crying out for rescue. We saw the lifeboat go out for
a boat that was in distress down at Barton, and you're desperate
for rescue. If you're a captive of rebels
and they're holding you to ransom, you need that ransom to be paid. You need to be redeemed. You
need to be purchased from the curse of sin, from the curse
of the law. That mountain of sin that separates
you from God, it must be taken away. In Zechariah 4 and verse
7, there's encouragement to Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the right prince,
he was the heir of the throne, and Joshua was the high priest.
And it says, what is this mountain in your way? It will be made
a plain, it will be made a plain. And in verse five, look, you
shall flee. Chapter 14 verse 5. Ye shall
flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains
shall reach unto Azel. Azel was the sanctified place. Azel was the holy place. He's
saying that the Savior will come and the mountains of sin that
are in the way, he will drive a valley right through it. What
is that valley that he's driven through it? It's redeeming grace.
It's his payment. of the sin debt of his people.
And his people will flee to the valley of the mountains. His
people will flee to the salvation that he has accomplished. They
will flee to the holy place where God is pleased with his people.
It's a way of escape. It's pictured in the cities of
refuge earlier on in the books of Moses. The cities of refuge
were where you escaped to from the just wrath of the law and
of God. It's a way made by God himself
in the person of his son, standing on the Mount of Olives. This
is all figurative language. It's not meant to be taken literally.
I'm sure you can see that. He's standing on the Mount of
Olives, and he cleaves that. The valley goes straight the
way through, making the way to the way of holiness. It's a way
made by him. It's made by him who is the way,
the truth and the life. It's made by him satisfying offended
justice as the substitute of his people. He stands in my place. In my place condemned he stood.
sealed my pardon with his blood. He's the substitute of the multitude. We say, how do we know who they
are? What are they? What's this about the elect of
God? It's a multitude which no man can number, it says in Revelation. They're the multitude chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. It was given to
us, as it says in 2 Timothy chapter one, verse nine, before time
began. It's clear, it's the elect multitude
that he loved before time. Do you see it? Do you see what
he's saying he's accomplished? To get his people rightly into
his kingdom? Well, verse 5, flee to it! If
you see it, flee to it. Because naturally, we're all
in darkness regarding the truth of God, regarding the gospel. But as we saw last time, two
weeks ago, at the end of verse 7, at evening time, It shall
be light at evening time when everything else seems dark, spiritually
dark, and God shines his light. Oh may this, for any that disbelieve
so far, oh may this be that evening time, may this be your day of
salvation. For all of you who are ignorant
of God and of his gospel, may you be given light to see light. May you in this evening of your
existence be given light to see light. May the God who shined,
who commanded light to shine in the darkness of creation,
may he be pleased to shine in your heart to give you the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. There's an immense contrast,
immense contrast, between the eternal privilege of knowing
God in Christ. Peter mentioned it in his prayer
once or twice, the privilege of knowing God in Christ. There's
an immense contrast between that and the eternal peril of facing
eternity, bearing responsibility for your own sin, because that
will be a dreadful place to be, for our God is a consuming fire.
In these verses that I want to look at briefly this morning,
verses 8 to 11, they tell us about the blessings of knowing
God, and by implication, the peril of missing those blessings.
I have three points. Number one, living waters. Number
two, one Lord. Number three, Jerusalem safely
inhabited. So first of all, living waters.
Living waters. In that day, in that day of salvation,
of release from just condemnation, of discharge from the unpayable
debt. How has it been discharged? By
the intercession, by the payment, by the substitution of one who
is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by him.
Therefore, God will pour out rivers of living water. And he's
speaking not of literal water, but of abundant spiritual life. in all directions, in all seasons. Look, it shall be in that day,
this is verse 8, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem,
half of them toward the former sea and half of them toward the
hinder sea, in summer and in winter shall it be. When he talks
about Jerusalem, please don't think about the pile of stones
in the Middle East at the moment, which is the place of such political
conflict and torment. No, no. He's talking about the
New Jerusalem, the Jerusalem which is above, the New Jerusalem. That's what he's talking about.
The Kingdom of God, the Church of God, the people of God. That's
what he's speaking about. God will pour out rivers of living
water in all directions, in all seasons. And the Holy Spirit
that inspired Zechariah also inspired the prophet Joel a few
pages earlier in chapter 3 and verse 18. of the Book of Joel,
it says this, It shall come to pass in that day that the mountains
shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain
shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water
the vale of Shittim. That valley was a very dry, desert,
lifeless place. It's a dry Gentile plane with
no knowledge of the truth of God at all. And the picture is
of the life of God flowing out into the world that knows nothing
about God. You see, the purpose of God in
this creation This fallen world, this kingdom of God, which was
usurped by Satan in the fall, the purpose of God is to send
out the water of abundant spiritual life from his church, Jerusalem. He sends it out from his church.
It's the white horse of Revelation chapter 6, the first horse called
forth. It's that white horse of gospel
preaching that goes out into the world. Why does it go out?
To frustrate the purposes of Satan in attempting to establish
a false utopia without the justice of God. That goes out. Abundant water, spiritual life
from the church, and here it is. I think again Peter mentioned
it in his prayers. Even in these dark, evil days,
you say, there's nothing like the missionary activity that
there used to be. Well, I'll tell you. The internet's
gone entirely around the world. It's never been more possible
for anybody, anywhere, to listen. Even now, as I'm speaking in
this room, I know there are people thousands of miles away watching
us, listening to us. Now, this is an absolute marvel
of today. I know it's used for all sorts
of evil things, but in the purposes of God, what blessings flow from
it? It's flowing out. It's living
water flowing out to a thirsty land. Are you thirsty for the
true life of God? This is what he's talking about.
Are you thirsty for that true life of God? Well, ho everyone
that is thirsty. Come to the waters, come and
buy. Isaiah 12 verse 3, draw water freely from the wells of
salvation. He's not talking literal water,
he's talking about the water of life, the water of spiritual
life. Look at Isaiah 41 and verses
17 Isaiah 41 verses 17 and 18. When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst. Look at the blessing of this.
I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places
and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water.
And turn over to chapter 43, chapter 43 and verses 19 to 21. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth, shall
ye not know it? I will even make a way in the
wilderness. and rivers in the desert. The
beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls,
because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the
desert to give drink to my people, my chosen. This people have I
formed for myself, they shall show forth This is the purpose
of God, to pour out the life of God, spiritual life, on his
people. It's pictured in the kingdom
of God, the river of the life of God in the midst of his paradise. Revelation 22 and verse 1, he
saw a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. You wonder what
this life is about? Do you ever wonder what this
life is about? It is this. It is the true life of God from
God. It is what the Psalmist wrote
about, Psalm 46 verse 4. There is a river whose streams
make glad the city of our God. It is that water of which Jesus
spoke, and of course we must refer to it in John chapter 4. John chapter 4 and verse 10.
where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman. He had to go through Samaria,
from the south to the north. Yes, he had to go through it,
but he had to go through it. Why did he have to go through
it? Because he was on the trail of one of the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. And here she was by a well, a
woman of disrepute. Here she was in the heat of the
day and the disciples went away and, oh, probably not very well
looked upon that the woman would be talking to a man by a well
alone in this place. But here she is, and he asks
her for a drink. Shouldn't have asked her. She's
a Samaritan, he's a Jew. And she says, why are you asking
me? We don't have anything to do
with each other. Verse 10, Jesus answered and
said unto her, if you knew the gift of God, and who it is that
saith to thee, give me to drink, you would have asked him, and
he would have given you living water. The woman said to him,
sir, you haven't got anything to draw with. The well's deep. From whence then hast thou that
living water? And I've put an article by Don
Faulkner in the bulletin. Whence then hast thou that living
water? Have a look at it. Art thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and
his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh of this water, this well water, this
Jacob's well water, will be thirsty again. You'll never satisfy it
there. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. If you turn over to chapter seven,
that great day of the feast, in chapter seven and verse, where
is it? Verse 37, in that last day, the
great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any
man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. He's talking about spiritual
life, the true spiritual life of God. The woman, the Samaritan
woman, her thirst was turned from purely material, because
she was thinking, oh, wouldn't it be nice if I had flowing water
in my house? Wouldn't that be nice? And I
didn't have to come to this well and draw buckets of this stagnant
water. Wouldn't that be nice? Give me some of that water. He
had to turn her so that she knew what he was really talking about.
He's talking about living water. He's talking about spiritual
water. And he had to do that by exposing
her sin. It's the exposure of sin that
gives the thirst for the true water of God. When as in Zechariah
chapter 12 and verse 10, that spirit of God, I will pour upon
the house of David again another term for the people of God, the
elect of God. I will pour upon them, upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications. And what will that spirit do?
It will make them look upon me whom they have pierced. not whom
they have pierced literally themselves, but whose sins have pierced him. They will look on him and know
that it is my sin that nailed him to that cross. It is my sin
that pierced his heart and his side. It is my sin that put him
there to pay its penalty. They shall mourn for him as one
mourneth for his only son. It's the spirit of grace and
supplication poured on God's people, and they look in repentant
faith at their sin piercing Christ to purchase their redemption
from that curse of sin. They mourn and repent, and it
says in the following verses of chapter 12, each one a part,
for it's a very personal thing. It's a very personal thing, and
they are brought to see Verse 1 of chapter 13. They're brought
to see that there is a fountain open. How should I be just with
God? There is a fountain opened to the house of David and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and unclean. There's
a fountain that will wash away your sin. There's a fountain
open. They will be brought to see,
verse 7 of chapter 13, the sword of God smiting the shepherd of
God, the man who is the fellow of God. He thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, our Lord Jesus Christ. He thought it not
robbery to be equal with Him. God's shepherd smitten for God's
sheep. And seeing your salvation accomplished,
he cried on the cross, it is finished, it is finished. It's
the same as in Revelation 16 and the battle of Armageddon
when the cry is, it is done, the judgment of God is done,
but for his people in Christ at Calvary, it is finished. It
was finished there. Seeing your salvation accomplished,
you never thirst again. What an immense privilege it
is to know and to rest in this confidence. What hope. We live
in a world where there seems to be so little hope, but the
people of God, they have a hope. They have a hope of eternity.
They have a hope. They know these things. They
have a hope of eternity. Be ready always to give to anyone
who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you. For it isn't
an irrational hope. It isn't a fingers crossed hope.
It isn't a maybe one day it will turn out right. It's a confident
hope because it's accomplished. He accomplished it. So that Paul
said, and we say with him, I know whom I have believed and I'm
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him. What's that? It's the state of my eternal
soul. Against what? Against that day, against that
day of judgment, that day when he divides the sheep from the
goats, that day when he says to his sheep, come ye blessed
of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. Well then, Second point, and
I suppose I took rather long over that one, but anyway. One
Lord, verse nine, and the Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day there shall be one
Lord and his name one. The people of God, having seen
the way of salvation made by God in Christ, are fully persuaded
that there is one Lord who is king over all the earth. Are
you not? We look around at the state of
the world and we see such crisis and such terror, but the people
of God resting in God know that there's one Lord who is king
over all the earth. You know who learned this? One
of the most powerful men who ever existed in history, Nebuchadnezzar,
the emperor of the Chaldean Empire, the Babylonian Empire. And God
brought him, when he was strutting around Babylon, proud of himself
as to what he'd achieved and how his great power and wealth
had... Look at me, look what I've done,
he's saying. And God brought him down. He had a dream and
Daniel told him what that dream meant and it was about a year
later that it happened. This mighty emperor was turned into
the likeness of a cow grazing in the field. His nails grew
long, his hair grew long, he ate the grass of the field until
God taught him who he was. And he said, God rules in the
kingdom of men. Nebuchadnezzar, that great mighty
emperor, learned that he was subject to the rule of God, to
the king of heaven. He rules in creation. He rules
in world history. He rules in world affairs. It
is he that calls forth the four horses of Revelation chapter
6. It is he, you know, they say, oh God must be so sad and wringing
his hands in anguish at the wars that are going. God called forth
the red horse. God called it forth, and the
black horse, and the grey pale horse. God did it, why? To frustrate
the kingdom of Satan, to frustrate that which rebels against the
justice and righteousness of God. He rules in creation and
in world affairs, in salvation as well. Look at Ephesians chapter
1. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, this is the prayer
of Paul for the Ephesians, that they might know this, that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. that ye may
know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the
glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding
greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the
working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he
raised him from the dead. and set him at his own right
hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and
power and might and dominion and every name that is named,
not only in this world but also in that which is to come, and
hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all. People of God, when you see the
news and you fear Vladimir Putin and what Donald Trump might do
next and whether we can mend the rift between him and Elon
Musk and all of these other things, oh, don't worry about things
like that. They're just utterly trivial.
God rules in the affairs of men. God rules in all of these things. The Lord is king. It may appear
that he's lost control in this world, where Satan rages, but
he even tells us that. In Revelation 12, verse 12, he
pictures a defeated Satan down on the earth, absolutely furious
in the knowledge that he's defeated, and he's angry with the woman.
Why is he angry with the woman? She's the church. He's furious.
He persecutes her children. But the heart of every world
power, every world leader, you know where it is? It's in the
hands of God. That's what Proverbs tells us.
It's in the hands of God. Why? for the accomplishment of
his kingdom's triumph. That's it. The kingdoms of this
world are become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.
So for his believing people, we know that all things work
together for good to those who love God, who are called according
to his purpose. If God be for us, it says later
on in that chapter eight of Romans, if God be for us, who can be
against us? Look at Ephesians chapter 4 and
verses 4-6 because you see it says there will be one Lord and
his name will be one. Now look at chapter 4 of Ephesians
where it says this in chapter 4 and verse 4 there is one body,
there is one spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your
calling. One Lord, is that not exactly
what Zechariah is telling us in verse nine of chapter 14?
There is one Lord, there is one faith, there is one baptism,
there is one God and Father of all who is above all and through
all and in you all. One Lord and his one body is
the church of his elect believers. The true church of God is God
and those who believe in him in perfect union. It's not about
denominations. and different interpretations
and different practices, which all lead to causing envy and
strife, as Paul says in Philippians chapter one. No, there's one
Lord, there's one faith, there's one body, there's one simple
gospel of Christ. Second Corinthians chapter 11
and verse three, Paul says, I fear that you are removed from the
simplicity that is in Christ. There's a simplicity in Christ.
It's this, and again, I think Peter mentioned it in his prayer.
Christ is all and in all. Christ is all and in you all.
Tim James wrote this, he's a good preacher, he's Tim James. He
said this, there is a magnificent simplicity and singularity in
the gospel. How merciful is our God to take
such wondrous things and bring them to a succinct point, thereby
making misunderstanding an impossibility. There is one way, one truth,
One life, one Lord, one baptism. A person cannot claim that he
does not understand. He can only admit that he does
not believe. So then, if God manifested in
Christ is King and has accomplished his purpose of eternal grace,
nothing can frustrate its completion. What a privilege to know and
to rest in a world that is so full of mental anguish, it seems,
all around us. What a privilege and a blessing
to rest in this. Nothing can frustrate the purposes
of God. And so finally, and just briefly,
verses 10 and 11. All the land shall be turned
as a plain from Geba to Rimon south of Jerusalem, and it shall
be lifted up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin's gate
unto the place of the first gate, and to the corner gate from the
tower of Hananiel, and to the king's winepresses. And men shall
dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction,
but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited." It was immediately
historically fulfilled with the completion of Jerusalem, and
there was a period of peace and settlement, but all sorts of
other problems came along. But of course, its true application
is spiritual. Jerusalem being safely inhabited
does not mean that pile of stones in the Middle East. It means
the Church of God. It means God's people residing
in the Kingdom of God in perfect peace, here, with glimpses and
tastes, and the veil is drawn away. and the foretaste is given
of that to which we're going. This is Jerusalem which is above,
which is free, as it says in Galatians. This is the new Jerusalem. In this world, there will be
opposition. In this world, there will be
persecutions. I said before, Revelation 12,
17, the dragon was angry with the woman. The devil is angry
with the people of God, and he will make war with her seed.
But we're in Christ by faith. We're in Christ by faith. What
do I mean? Faith is that sight of the soul. It's that gift of God. It's not
of yourselves. It's not that you've been better
and more worthy of heaven than other people. No, God gives the
gift of faith. By grace you're saved. through
faith. Faith is the means by which we
apprehend the truth of God. It's the means by which we see
the faith of Christ, that which he has accomplished. The faith
of Christ is him fulfilling that covenant of grace made with the
Father and the Spirit before the beginning of time. And we
know that nothing can separate us from the love of God. We know
that nothing can do it, for the Scripture tells us, and the Spirit
confirms it in our hearts. We know, as I said earlier, whom
we have believed, and we're confident that He's able to keep that which
we've committed unto Him against that day. As I said, there is
an immense contrast between the privilege of being in Christ
and the peril of being outside of Christ. In Him, We are kings
and priests already seated in heavenly places. There's so much
more there where we could go. We're already kings and priests
in him. Already, but out of him. How
shall we escape just condemnation? How shall we escape, says Hebrews
2, doesn't it? How shall we escape if we neglect
such great salvation? Let's look at the verses we read
to start with. In him, in him, We are come to
Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God. That's not that
pile of stones in the Middle East. This is the kingdom of
God. This is the heaven of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an
innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church
of the firstborn, which are written in heaven. Oh, this is the thing
to rejoice in. The disciples came back. Ah,
the devils are subject to us. And Jesus said, well, don't rejoice
in that, but rejoice in this. that your names are written in
heaven, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, the spirits
of men who on earth were sinners but made perfect by grace, and
to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, for there is one
God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ
Jesus. and come to the blood of sprinkling,
which speaks better things than that of Abel. The blood of Abel
speaks and cries out from the ground for revenge, for justice.
But the blood of sprinkling of the Lord Jesus Christ speaks
peace to our souls. For the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth us from all sin. See that ye refuse him not that
speaketh. For if they escape not, he's
talking about those in the days of Moses who escaped not when
they refused him who spoke on earth. How much more shall we
not escape if we turn away from him that speaks today from heaven
to his people? Amen.