Our text is going to be found
in Hebrews chapter 12. I don't want you to look at that
just yet, though. Beautiful for situation. Beautiful
for height. Beautiful for elevation is Mount
Zion. The church of the living God. I've entitled this message High
society. I thought it was interesting
that Duane read from Psalm 39 when it says, Barely every man
at his best state is altogether vanity. Psalm 62 Nine says, surely
men of low degree, low society, are vanity. And men of high degree,
what they would consider high society, are a lie. To be laid in the balances, they
are altogether lighter than vanity. I don't know if it's still in
operation, but at one time in the Lexington area, there was
called the Lexington Blue Blood book. And it had the list of
the names of high society. That's almost comical, isn't
it? When you read this passage of scripture regarding man, man
in his best state, altogether vanity, Lighter than vanity,
a lie. And one worm of the dust trying
to get up on his fellow worms, high society. That's nauseating. Completely nauseating. But here
is true high society. Now turn to Hebrews chapter 12. You'll see why I'm saying this. Verse 22. But you are come unto Mount Zion
that I just read about in Psalm 48. Beautiful for elevation. Mount Zion is the church. You
are come to Mount Zion unto the city of the living God. The heavenly Jerusalem. And to
an innumerable company of angels. Now that's high society. to the
General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which are written
in heaven. That's high society, isn't it? To God, the Judge of all. Now there is high society. And the spirits of just men made
perfect. And to Jesus, the Mediator. of the new covenant
into the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel." Now, there we have high society, beautiful
for elevation, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole
earth. Now, men are social creatures. No man is an God said it's not
good that man should dwell alone. And in this passage of Scripture,
I just read about the highest of all societies. You could call
it the Zion society. Now, society is a number of persons
united for a common interest, a true fraternity. And this high
society that I'm speaking of is huge, an innumerable company
of angels, all of God's elect, a number which numbers 10,000
times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. And in this society,
we have God, the judge of all. And in this society, we have
the Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator, and this is the society that
I must be in. I must be in this society. Now, look in verse 18 of Hebrews
chapter 12. In this passage of scripture,
he's contrasting Mount Sinai, the place of the giving of the
law, and Mount Zion. Now he says to the Hebrew believers
in verse 18, for you are not come unto the mount that might
be touched. Now this is a reference to Mount
Sinai. He said that's the place where
God gave the law. You can read about it. That's
where he gave the Ten Commandments. That's where he gave his holy
law. And he says, you've not come
to that mountain that might be touched. It was a sensual, visible,
audible, tangible, physical mountain. Things that are seen and experienced
externally. There's a law that demanded perfect
outward conduct. Seen in the thou shalt and the
thou shalt not. Now you find me somebody who
looks at that law and wants to be under it. And I'll show you
somebody who has a very low view of the law of God. You bring
it down to your corrupt level if you think you can keep it.
It's presumptuous, prideful, and evil. If you think you can
keep it to any way, to any degree. Now, regarding this law, we're going
to see this description of it. You take the Ten Commandments.
Listen to me. You and I have not kept one commandment
one time. I don't care which law you're
talking about. I don't care if you're talking about thou shalt
not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal.
Honor your father and mother. Love God with all your heart.
Love your neighbors yourself. Don't take the name of the Lord
in vain. Thou shalt not covet whatever
commandment we're dealing with. Not one person in this room has
kept one commandment one time. And if you believe you have,
you prove by that that you don't really understand the law of
God. Now look what he says regarding
this law. He says in verse 18, for you're
not come unto the mouth that might be touched, that burned
with fire. This speaks of God's unapproachable
holiness. You've not come to this mouth
that burned with fire or blackness, he says next, gloominess, no
joy, only dread and fear, or darkness, blindness, intellectual
and moral darkness. Now, this law that he's speaking
of, I love God's law, believe me. I'm not saying anything bad
regarding God's holy law. I love God's law. I delight in
the law of God after the inward man. But I know this, if I think
that I can keep the law in any way, I don't have any idea what
it means. The strength of sin is what? The law. If I put you under law in any
way, all you're going to do is rebel. If I'm put under law in
any way, all I'm going to do is rebel. That's our nature.
That's the way we... The strength of sin is the law. There's nothing but darkness
in that dispensation. Now, what's this passage of Scripture
mean? John 1.18 or 1.17? The law! God's holy law, the Ten Commandments,
all the ceremonial law, all the simple law, and you can't separate
them, the Sabbath, the Holy Days, all those laws. It's interesting
the way some people try to pick out some that we're still under
and then they say, well, we're not under those anymore. No, the
law is one. It's all one. The law was given
by Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Isn't the law true? Of course
it is. But it's not the truth. It doesn't
tell the whole picture. The law tells us what God requires.
It tells us something about God's holiness and God's justice and
God's majesty and God's power. But it doesn't tell us about
how God saves sinners by Christ. It doesn't tell us anything about
grace. It doesn't tell us about the forgiveness of sins. The
law was given by Moses, but grace Truth. There's two things that
can't be separated. Grace and truth. Grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. Verse 19 of our text. And the sound. This is talking
about when God came down and gave the law and the sound of
trumpet. And this is not where you come.
Thank God for this. This place with the sound of
trumpet and the voice of words, which voice David heard him treated
that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. They said, Moses,
We don't want to hear this anymore. We're scared to death. Hearing
God speak and his requirements. Verse 20, For they could not
endure, they could not obey that which was commanded. And so much
as a beast touched a 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. Now you've not
gone there. Aren't you glad? Once again, I love God's law. I love the Ten Commandments.
I love the Sabbath day. I love the feast days. I love
all those that are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank
God for that. And I'm not under law. You see,
I kept the law. I don't try to keep it. I've
kept it in my redeemer. And I'm not under law. I'm under grace. Paul said that
you're not under law, but you're under grace. He says you've not
come to this hurricane, this wrathful anger, and this is all
we'll know in seeing God's holy law. So terrible was the sight that
Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. Now, you've not come
there, verse 22, but you've come unto Mount Zion. And Mount Zion
is the gospel. Mount Sinai is the place of the
giving of the law. Law is salvation conditioned
upon something you do. If any part of your salvation
is dependent upon you keeping some kind of law or doing something,
that is law. Now, he said, you've not come
there. Thank God I haven't come there, because if any part of
salvation is dependent upon me, I know this, I won't do it. I
know that I will not be saved if that's the case. Now, you've
not come there. Aren't you thankful? You've not
come to Mount Sinai. But you've come to Mount Zion,
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an
innumerable company of angels. Now, we don't know a great deal
about angels. They're stronger than us. They're
superior beings with superior intellects. And Hebrews 1.14
tells us that they're ministering spirits sent forth to minister
unto them who are the heirs of salvation. And Peter tells us
concerning these angels that they desire to look into the
things of Christ, and Paul calls them elect angels. I love thinking
about this. Now, the demons, what are they? They're fallen
angels. The angels who haven't fallen,
what are they? Elect angels. The only reason
they haven't fallen is because God kept them from it. He chose
them. They are just as dependent upon
election as we are. The elect angels. Now you've
come to an innumerable company of angels. I love that passage
of scripture. where Elisha's servant in 2 Kings chapter 6
is scared to death and Elisha says, Lord open his eyes that
he can see. All he could see was this army
surrounding him. And when God opened his eyes, he saw the mountains
covered with these mighty flaming angels looking over what was
going on. You know, there's angels looking
at what's going on right here, right now. Isn't that glorious
to think about? Now there's a lot they're not
interested in. But they're always interested
when the gospel of God's grace is preached. Which things angels
desire to look into. You know, there's things we experience
that they can't experience. But they're amazed by it. They're
amazed at the forgiveness of sins. They're amazed at the grace
of God. They love it. We've come to an
innumerable company of angels. High society. What does he say next? Verse
23. You come to the General Assembly
and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven.
Now, this society, it's not like the Lexington Blue Blood Society,
no. This society, their names are
written in heaven. This is talking about the Lamb's
Book of Life, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
This is the company of God's elect. This is who this is talking
about. And I love the way he calls it the General Assembly
and the Church of the Firstborn. He uses two words, the General
Assembly and the Church. Now, the church simply means
the called out assembly. But the General Assembly has
more of a festive attitude toward it. In other words, this is a
thing of joy. This is a thing of festive. People who, it's not
like the law where you're scared to death, where you're always
wondering if you've done enough and you never have the assurance
that you've done enough. This is a festive attitude. The General
Assembly and Church of the Firstborn. This is talking about all of
God's elect. Those that God chose before the
foundation of the world. Those whose names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life, of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And I love this name of the Church. The general
assembly, the festivities, and I say this reverently, but there's
a party. There's a party. It's an enjoyable,
isn't it enjoyable to be saved by grace? Isn't it enjoyable
and pleasurable to have the righteousness of Christ as your righteousness
before God? Isn't it pleasurable to have
the forgiveness of sins? To have God love you for Christ's
sake? For Him to promise He'll never
leave you or forsake you? Isn't it a joy to be around His
people? It's a festive place. It's the church of the firstborn
whose names are written in heaven. And He says, You've come. Not to that Mount Sinai, but
you come to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn,
which are written in heaven, and you come to God, the Judge
of all. Now, when I didn't know the Lord,
the thought of God being a judge terrified me, because that means
I'm in trouble. That's all I could get out of
that. But understand this, when you come to the Lord in the Gospel,
now, God the Judge of all, If God judges me and sends me
to hell, if God judges you and gives you what you've got coming
according to your works, is it a just judgment? Would God be just? Yes. He's
the judge of all. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? And his sentence The punishment
fits the crime, doesn't it? God's just, he's right. But here's
the glorious thing. If I come in the Lord Jesus Christ,
if I come believing the gospel, if I come looking to Christ only,
God, the judge of all, declares me he deserves to be in heaven.
How? Because I had the very righteousness
of Christ. My sins became Christ. He paid
for them. His righteousness is mine. And
God says, come on in. You've done a good job. Enter
thou in. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. Can you imagine the Lord saying that to you? Saying to
you personally, well done, thou good and faithful servant. That's
hard to get hold of, isn't it? That the Lord's going to say
that to me? But if Christ did well, I did too, because I'm
in Him, and He is my righteousness before God, and God saving me,
the Judge of all, gives me exactly what I got coming. Oh, don't
you love the justice of the Gospel? Everything about God is absolutely
just. You've come to God, the Judge
of all, and you've come to, listen to this description of believers,
the spirits of just men made perfect. And notice it doesn't
say these just men will be made perfect. This is a description
of every believer right now. A just man. Justified. That means not guilty. If I'm justified, that means
I don't have any sin. Now, this is the description
of every believer justified by what Christ did for them. A just
man. The spirits of just men made
perfect, made complete. Not only am I just, I'm perfect
in Christ Jesus. Now, believer, believe that's
the truth regarding yourself, because God says it. The spirits
of just men made perfect. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. You're
there, Hebrews. Verse 11, And every priest standeth daily,
ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool, for by one offering he hath what? perfected, forever, them that
are sanctified. How perfect? How perfect is the
Lord Jesus Christ? How perfect is He? That's how
perfect you are if you're in Him. As He is, is He perfect? As He is, so are we in this world. Now you think of the highness
of this society you've come to. You didn't come to Mount Sinai,
the place of the giving of the law. You came to Mount Zion,
innumerable company of angels, God the judge of all, the spirit
of just men made perfect, and look what it says next in Hebrews
chapter 12, turn back there. You've come in verse 24 to Jesus,
the mediator of the new covenant. Now, what is a mediator? It's
one who brings two conflicting parties together. God has something
against me because of my sin, and I'm afraid of him because
of my sin. Now, a mediator is one who brings
these, God and His holiness, me and my sin, he brings them
together. And he's the mediator of the
new covenant. Now, turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 8. That's the New Testament. The
old covenant is salvation by works. The new covenant is salvation
by Christ. And this is a better covenant.
Hebrews 8, 6 says, But now hath he obtained a more excellent
ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant,
which was established upon better promises. Now let me ask you
a question. What's better? Being saved by what Christ did?
Or being saved by what you did? What's better? What do you prefer? There's no doubt in my mind that
Christ is the mediator of the better. It's better to be saved
by Christ than to be saved by your works. That's better. Look
in Hebrews chapter 7, verse 22. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. Now, what is this thing of him
being a surety of a better testament? Well, what's a surety? Let's
turn to Genesis 43 real quick. The Bible gives us an example
of what a surety is. This is when Jacob was afraid
to send Benjamin down into Egypt. He wanted him protected. He didn't
want him descending. And we read in verse 8, and Judah
said unto Israel, remember Christ came out of the loins of Judah,
didn't he? The lion of the tribe of Judah. And Judah said unto
Israel, his father, send the lad with me, and we will arise
and go that we may live and not die, both we and thou and also
our little ones. I will be surety for him of my
hand, shalt thou require him? If I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever."
Now, there's the surety. The Lord Jesus is the surety,
the guarantee of this better testament, the covenant of grace. Turn to Hebrews 9, verse 11. But Christ being come
and high priest of good things to come, and by a greater and
more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say,
not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood, he entered once into the holy place, what? Having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Back to Hebrews 12. You've come
to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. And then he says in verse 24,
and you've come to the blood of sprinkling. Now, here's. Who we've come to. We've come
to this innumerable company of angels, we've come to God, the
judge of all, we've come to the spirit of just men made perfect,
we've come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and then
it says we've come to the blood of sprinkling that speak of better
things than that of Abel. Now, here's my question. Have I come, truly, in my heart,
have I come to the blood of Sprinkly? That speaks better things than
Abel's blood did. Now, remember the story. There's
not a more important story in the Bible than the story of Cain
and Abel. It's the first thing that took
place after the fall. Remember Abel. He brought a sacrifice,
a bloody sacrifice of a lamb in obedience to God. Cain brought
the fruit of the ground. Cain brought his works. God rejected Cain's offering. Cain did his best. God said it's
no good. The scripture says actually that
he had no respect for it. That means he was disgusted by
it. And yet God accepted the sacrifice of Abel. He had regard
for it. He delighted in it. So after
all this is over, Cain and Abel have a fight. And we know what
the issue was. Cain was very upset over the
fact that God accepted his brother's sacrifice and didn't accept his
own. He said, it's not fair. I did my best. Why didn't God
accept mine? And I have no doubt that Abel
reminded him. We can't come into God's presence
on the basis of our works in any way. The only way we can
come is through the sacrifice of the coming Lamb of God. He
believed on Christ just the way I do. Christ hadn't come yet,
but he looked to Christ only as the only reason he'd be accepted.
He really did. And so they got to discussing
it. And Cain got more mad and more mad and more mad. And you
know, he murdered his brother over this. That's how mad he
got. Abel became the first Christian
martyr. He signed what he, sealed what
he believed with his own blood. And then God said, okay, the
blood of your brother cries to me from the ground. What did it say? Vengeance. Pay him back. Put him to death. Let justice
be served. It was hard evidence. Your brother's
blood is evidence that you're guilty and you've done these
things. That's what the blood of Abel had to say. Get him back. Get him back. Vengeance. But
look what our text says. You've come to the blood of sprinkling
that speaketh better things. than that of Abel. Now, Abel's blood cried for vengeance. What does the blood of Christ
cry for? Forgiveness. It says, forgive
him, pardon him, justify him, accept him, save him. That's what the blood of Christ
cries. Now, Abel's blood says, Punish him. Get rid of him. Destroy
him. Give him what he's got coming.
But you know, the blood of Christ also says, give him what he's
got coming. Because the blood of Christ demands
the salvation of everybody he died for. You see, the blood
of Christ speaks totally different than the blood of Abel. It speaks
better things, doesn't it? Oh my, the things of the gospel. Abel's blood tells us that he
was willing to die for what he believed, but the blood of Christ,
it ratified the covenant of grace. Now that covenant I've been talking
about, there's two covenants. There's covenant of works, salvation
dependent upon you. Where does that get you? If you
have any honesty at all, you know you can't be saved if salvation
is dependent upon you. Salvation dependent upon Christ
is the covenant of grace that he ratified with his own blood. It's called the blood of the
everlasting covenant. And here's why my salvation is
sure. Because of the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, it speaks better things than that of Abel. Abel's blood said to Cain, you're
guilty. Christ's blood says to me, I'm
not guilty. Abel's blood says to Cain, you
can have no peace, you're going to be a vagabond, always chaste. The blood of Christ says, you
have complete peace. All God's reason for anger has
been removed. You're accepted in the beloved. Now, I want to ask you a question.
Have you come to this blood a sprinkling? Now somebody says, what's the
sprinkling? Where's that at? Well, that's
the application of the blood. You can't apply the blood to
yourself. God's got to apply it to you.
But if God has applied the blood to you, you come to the blood
of sprinkling. Now, I'm not asking you if you've
come to Christianity. I'm not asking you if you've
come to the right doctrine. Have you come to the blood of
sprinkling that speaks better things than that of April? You know, we read in Romans 3
25 of faith in his blood. Yes, we have faith in his person
and because of What we believe concerning error, because we
believe him, we believe his blood is enough to make us perfect
before God that puts us in this high society, the General Assembly
and Church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
Now, here's the question I want to ask. Can you throw away all that you think you've trusted?
Can you throw away all your experience? Can you throw away all your religion?
Can you throw away all your good deeds? Can you throw away all
your intentions and trust the blood of sprinkling? Can you trust him with your soul? Can you trust Him with your sins? Can you trust Him with your future? Can you trust Him with your past? Can you trust Him with your present? Can you trust Him for everything? You come to Jesus, the mediator
of the new covenant, the covenant of grace, the covenant of complete
salvation in Him, to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better
things than that of Abel. You really believe that who He
is and what He did, His precious blood, puts you in this high
society. in the General Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, to God the Judge of all and the
spirits of just men made perfect. Now, he says in verse 25, and
this is what I want to close with, see that you refuse not
him that speaketh. Now, that word refuse is literally,
beg off. Beg off, make excuse. As a matter
of fact, there in Luke chapter 14, it talks about those people
when the great king said, all things are now ready, come on,
you don't need to bring anything. They all with one consent began
to make excuse. See that you refuse not him that
speaketh. For if they escape not who refuse
him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. Now, how do I refuse? Well. One way to refuse is to
neglect. Just neglect. What do you do
when you neglect? You don't do anything. What do
you got to do to let weeds overcome your garden? Nothing. That's all it takes. Nothing. Beg off. How do I refuse him that speaks? By failing to trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. and believe that His precious
blood is all I need to make me perfect before God. See that you refuse not Him to
speak. May God give us grace to truly
remember we've not come to that Mount Sinai that burned with
blackness and darkness, but we've come to Mount Zion. May God give
us the grace to rest in His Son. Let's pray together.