It has been a blessed morning musically. Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 this morning. Let me ask you once again to stand please as you of course as you are physically able. And once again, because I'm taking three Sundays to deal with really one lengthy component in the text, we will read verses 14 through 29. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. 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 you're not coming to the mount that might be touched, that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with the dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. A year coming to Mount Zion, under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See then, or see that he refused not him that speaketh, for 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 heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken as of 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. Let's pray. Father, it is my prayer that I and we are people would. Embrace the instruction that we have received. That you are a consuming fire. You will burn away the dross the chaff, that which is without value, and what will emerge from the lives of your people is that which is precious and eternal. And so help us, Father, to think carefully, to think biblically about the things we do and the way we live. We pray your blessing to that end this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you. As the pastor is winding down his exhortation to the people to continue on in their profession of faith, which, by the way, he will in chapter 13 gives some definite shape to what that looks like. That's the purpose of chapter 13. What does a continuity of profession mean? What does it look like? There are certain components. The pastor has brought us, as we get to the end of chapter 12, to this kind of both conclusion and crescendo that just as a song will take on a majestic element at the end, this message takes on this majestic element. It is primarily about the nature of God. I think that emerges in verse number 29, what God is. I'm not saying that God is different things at different times to different people, but The perspective of who God is is in some measure dependent upon the subject matter at hand. If we're talking about love, which John talks about a lot in 1 John, then God is love. But in this instance, God is a consuming fire. A God who puts all things to the flame. And that is the subject matter that is a little bit of the perspective. Last week, our attention was on verses 18 through 21. That we are not come to Mount Sinai. That we are not come to Mount Sinai. And folks, we are not Old Testament people. We treasure the Old Testament. I hope you read the Old Testament. We reference the Old Testament. But as New Covenant people, the New Covenant and the New Testament are the priority for all that we do. We are New Testament people. That is what the Lord has for us. This morning our passage is verse 22, 23, and 24. Because again, the pastor has made these contrasts in this great crescendo that is the conclusion to this portion of the message in which he has likened the life of a true believer to a marathon. What does the finish line look like? What does the finish line look like? Well, it doesn't look like Mount Sinai. And the idea there, folks, in ye are come, and it's really beautiful language. It's language that we should learn to treasure. We are not come, right? As you're running and you're running and you're running and you're running, you're not coming to that. But as you're running, as you're running, as you're running, as you're running, you are coming to this. I have a pastor friend who many years ago started a church just north along Interstate 29 right into Canada. He's just not very far into Canada. South of Winnipeg, but close to the U.S. border. And he told me when they first moved up there as a family, they were going up and they were going to Winnipeg. And as you know, if you get on that stretch of 29 and you get into North Dakota, well, it just gets flat and it's just flat. And he said, we were driving along and pretty soon we could see the lights of Winnipeg and the kids got all excited. And he said, we kept driving and a half an hour passed and 45 minutes passed and an hour passed and we finally got to Winnipeg. We could see it a long way off, but we weren't that close. We're running, and we're running, and we are running. What does the finish line hold? And to get a little bit technical, I don't really want to get too technical, but the pastor presents the information in verses 22, 23, and 24 in kind of a reverse chronological order. So he kind of starts with the oldest and works to the present, or the present and then works his way backwards. So where are you headed? Verse number 22. We are coming. That's the idea. We are approaching, not Sinai, which is emblematic of the law of Moses, but we are approaching Zion. What we are approaching, folks, what our finish line looks like is a living city. But you're approaching, you're coming to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable company of angels. A living city, not a cartoon city, not a Disney animated city, but a city that is truly animated with life. And what we have here is, as so often has happened in the book of Hebrews, facts are being presented to us in terms of contrast. One of the ways that the pastor is emphasizing and magnifying the new covenant is by pointing us back to the nature and activity of the old covenant. And we're not come to the old covenant Even though the Old Covenant is a glorious covenant, it is by its nature, folks, by God's own description, 2 Corinthians 3, 7, it is the ministry of death. And we do not want to be ignorant of that. We are people of the Bible. We treasure the Old Testament. And even the New Testament will periodically, in sorting through a dilemma for us, in wrestling through the answer to a question, it will answer it this way, well, what did the law say? But folks, the Bible is equally clear that if you could keep the law, if you could keep the law in all of its perfections, the best of intentions, the most faithful of times with zero possible infractions, At the end of your life, you would have one outcome. You would be condemned. Now, no one could do that except for the perfect man, Christ. But the law is a ministry of death. It serves up death. It penalizes with death. It articulates with death. It is death. It is glorious. in its purpose, but its purpose is not life. And this is part of the contrast. You're not going there. You're not going there. That is not where you will end. But the new covenant, folks, is a covenant of life. And if you look at verse number 22, where we are headed is described three ways. And I think these are three perspectives, not three places. but you're come to Mount Zion or Zion as our King James Bible puts it, Zion, which is also the city of the living God, which is also the heavenly Jerusalem. Mount Zion is geographically about 300 miles away from Mount Zion. I mean Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai is in the Arabian Peninsula. Mount Zion is very close to Jerusalem. Both sites are where the covenants were inaugurated. The old with Moses at Sinai, the new with Christ at Sinai. Obviously the writer here has in mind that covenant aspect. You are come to Mount Sinai. We're not all going to Jerusalem, folks. And it is the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the city of God oriented in a heavenly way. Heavenly, of course, being the adjective, Jerusalem heavenly. It is the city of God. We're going to God's city. We're going to be with the Lord. We are going where the Lord is. We are going and God is presenting it to us in a very human dimension. We're going to be where God lives. This is where we are headed. And as the pastor has already made plain to us on the basis of Hebrews chapter 4, whereas the old covenant was restrictive, put up the barriers, don't get too close, don't touch. If even your dog gets loose and cuts across the property, it's going to be killed. Nothing living survives the realm. We are invited. The door is open. Come on in. We are welcomed. So where are you going? You are going to God's city, to a city that is alive because it is the city of the living God. And when you get there, who will be there? This is one of the things that the pastor talks about. Who will be there when you get there? Well, let's just look at verse 22 and verse number 23. You're come to Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. That's where. Who is there? An innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written to heaven, to God, to judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. That's who. Who will be there? Well, there is first of all an innumerable number of angels. Can there be an innumerable number? An uncountable number of angels. The Greek word is actually myriad, which is the word that the Greek language used to describe the highest number they have, which is 10,000. You're taking a Greek math class, 10,000 is the highest number there is. So we have millions, and billions and trillions and quadrillions. And I thought, well, quadrillion has got to be the biggest number that we have, but it isn't. We actually have numbers that we use that can go beyond that. This is one of the reasons why your Bible will say something like 10,000 times 10,000. Not to be poetical, but because it has no other way to explain it. It has no number. for that. To an innumerable company of angels. And again, folks, a reminder that God has already told us that these angels are ministering spirits, ministering to those who are the heirs of life. So there is a closeness and an affinity of God's created beings who are waiting for our arrival. And they are in, and I'm gonna come back to this in a moment, because this, you know, it just, when we read it, what is, we're gonna ask this word, right? To an innumerable company of angels in our King James Bible, comma, to the general assembly, to the general assembly. I will come back to that, but I think that the point the pastor is making is that it is the angels who are in the assembly. Not number one, to an innumerable company of angels, number two, to a general assembly, number three, to the church of the firstborn, which is next that is mentioned there, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn. Israel was called God's firstborn. In Exodus 4.22, God instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And of course, we understand folks that particularly in the biblical world, but well into the mid evil ages, the firstborn son was the son of greatest and highest privilege. And he was the recipient of the vast majority, if not all of the father's wealth and land. Israel is my firstborn. And then Romans tells us that Jesus is God's firstborn. And obviously Jesus is God's firstborn in the sense that Israel is Jesus being a product physically of Jewish parents. Romans 8.29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. It's part of Christ's humanity that he is the firstborn, not in the created sense. We go through that periodically, folks. Psalm number two, Acts chapter 13, in the resurrected sense. It is an exalted place. Where are we going? We are going to God's city. Is it irreverent to call it God's hometown? And who is there? All of these angels that have been his attendants, that have served us in ways that we cannot say and have never noted. And to the church of the firstborn, to the assembly of those who are identified with Christ by salvation. And to the spirits of just men made perfect. Men made perfect from the inside out. And again, folks, this is said in contrast to the law. Right? This is something that the pastor dealt with extensively in Hebrews 7, 8, 9, and 10, that the law could not, could not reach your inmost necessity spiritually. Could not do it. And when we take these concepts, folks, and you notice, of course, that I have overlooked one, which we will come to, to a general assembly, the church of the firstborn written in heaven, God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect. Written in heaven, by the way, refers to being engraved in heaven. We have been called out by, right, we take all the other Bible information that we know about the church, that it is an assembly that is called out for a specific purpose. We talked about this in 1 Corinthians recently, that we are called to be God's special people in this world, called out by him. And our names have been added to his list. That's, by the way, in the passive sense of the word, which are written in heaven. You didn't, it's not like going to a restaurant and putting your name on the list. Somebody else put your name on the list. It is a passive verb construction. And we are part of those who have been made perfect. And again, I would remind you that the pastor has already dealt with this theme for us, right? He is concluding his sermon. It is a majestic conclusion. He has not gone off at a random tangent. Jesus is better than the angels and the angels are in God's city waiting. We have been called out to be God's sacred people and he has written our name in heaven and we are part of that group of people who have been made perfect, which is the goal. Hebrews 6.1, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection. So what is the end, folks? As you run your race and you run your race, where will you end up? You will end up in God's city with God's servants, having the perfection that God desires for you. And we are among the festival gathering. You go back to the early part of verse number 22 or the last part of verse 21 and verse 22 and 23, to an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly. Those two words there, general assembly, are just really the translation of one Greek word that is used to describe the celebration of a deity. It is the only place that the word is used in the entire New Testament, which is part of the reason we struggle a little bit to get our minds around what it means, because we don't really have any other good reference places. But we do have them in secular Greek because they used it to describe their religious festivals. And we find it in the Greek Old Testament. where it is sometimes translated with the words solemn assembly, a formal gathering of worshipers. So here we are. We are not going to Sinai. And if you lived your whole life and you held on to your profession and you try to do it on the basis of the works of the law of Moses, when you got to the end of your life, you would be condemned. But we are coming to Mount Zion, God's city, the city of the God that is alive, to the heavenly Jerusalem, And we could, folks, and I did not. We could have gone back and looked at so many verses in the Old Testament that magnify the city of Jerusalem as being special to God. And this is Jerusalem in a heavenly sense, Jerusalem special to God with its provisions and protections and its blessing. And back to verse number 23, to an innumerable company of angels in festive assembly. to the assembly of the firstborn written in heaven, because our salvation has always been eternally secure. And to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, men who have not been perfected by their works or their intellect, or their devotion, or their sincerity, but because some outside force has made them perfected. And to God the judge of all. If you go back into the book of Exodus, and you read about the great ratification of the old covenant in Exodus 19 and 20, You don't read along very long, far, until you're with Aaron and the people in the wilderness having a wild party that resulted in God's condemnation. But when you come to this celebration, folks, God, the judge of everything, is there. This is a festal gathering, a religious gathering of celebration for those who have been made perfect, whose names are written in heaven, called out by the Lord with his sanction. God, the judge of everything. God, the judge of everything, has declared, verses 22, 23, and 24, to be gloriously spectacular and acceptable. He has put his approval upon it. And in fact, folks, it is quite possible, and I could not prove this, but I can read you of the verse that would make me wonder about it. Zephaniah 3.17. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee mighty. He will save thee. He will rejoice over thee with joy. God the judge of all. God the judge of all. Rejoicing over us with singing. That's what awaits. That's what awaits new covenant people. That's what awaits all the saved. I think, and again, this is a Sunday morning message. This is not the time to go through the theological minutia, but I think the Old Testament and the New Testament believers are certainly included in what is expected here. So where are we going? Verse number 22, God's city. And who will be there? God's people. And that brings us to verse number 24, how is this possible? How is it possible for our names to be engraved in heaven? How is it possible for us to be a part of having made our souls perfected? How is this possible if it is not possible because we're not going to Sinai? It is made possible by God's Son. Where are we going? God's city. And who is there? God's people. And how is it possible? God's Son. Verse number 24, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. And this is why I said there's a bit of a reverse order there, folks, because there's no way that your name is graven in heaven and there's no way that God The judge of everything can put his approval on your presence there. Or I go back to the man who wasn't wearing the wedding garment. Find him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness, but you're there. And God, the judge of everything, has sanctioned your being there because your name has been written there and because your soul has been made perfect. But none of that happens until first there is the work of the mediator. His activity is first. And of course the pastor has made much of the sacrifice of Christ in Hebrews 7, 8, 9, and 10. Listen to Hebrews 9, 7. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. The Holy Ghost thus signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as yet the first tabernacle was standing. Old Covenant. Hebrews 9.12, New Covenant, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause, he is the mediator of the New Testament, which is covenant. that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. So in other words, folks, what is our basis and where is our standing in the city of God with God's approval and surrounded by God's good creation, the blood of Christ, the blood of Christ. And the pastor goes on to point out to us that the blood of Christ says better things than Abel's blood. Now, if you'll look back at Hebrews 11, again, right, the pastor is not just running around randomly He is bringing back to his majestic conclusion parts that he has already addressed. Hebrews 11.4, By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. Now, don't get confused there. Hebrews 11.4 is not the blood of Abel. Hebrews 11.4 is Abel's offering to God that was acceptable, and his brother's offering was not acceptable, and that's what brought about what he is referencing in Hebrews 12.24. That blood of Abel. The blood that Abel shed. The blood of Jesus says better things than the blood of Abel says. If you want to turn to it, Genesis 4, verses 10 and 11. Talk to us about the voice of Abel's blood. That's the way it's referred to in Hebrews 12, 24. Hebrews 12, 24, and Jesus, the media, the new covenant to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Jesus' blood said something, Abel's blood said something. When Abel's blood went into the ground, it spoke. And when Jesus' blood was shed, it spoke. Genesis chapter four and verse number 10, after Cain has killed his brother Abel, God said to him, what hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. The blood of Abel, the blood that Abel's own body spilt on the ground was a testimony to his faithfulness to God. But it was a cry for vengeance. Folks, as you read the text, It is a cry for vengeance. It calls out for retribution. And upon Cain, the retribution comes. But the blood of Christ calls out for forgiveness. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. The blood of Abel will testify to the righteousness of Abel but will not testify to your forgiveness, but the blood of Christ will. It is the blood that washes us from our sin. So again, folks, when we come to the end of our race, we do not come out the doorway that is marked the law of Moses' condemnation. We come out the door that is marked the new covenant of Christ. the city of God, where am I going? I'm going where God lives. And who will be there? All of God's people will be there. And how can I be there? By the blood of Christ. And only by the blood of Christ. We're not coming to condemnation, but to glorious, spectacular welcome And yet the nature of human beings being what they are, folks, and the nature of our conduct being what it is, the pastor will give us one last final admonition, verses 25 through 29. Don't make excuses to the one who is talking. That's what it means. Don't make excuses to the one who is talking. It is a serious thing for us to be New Covenant people. It's spectacular. It is glorious in a way that Old Covenant could never be. That's what Paul deals with in 2 Corinthians 3. If the Old Covenant was spectacular, how much more the New Covenant? And we are coming folks to this festival gathering, this glory, not a sensual party, not a drunken debauched gathering, but to a gathering of righteous people in the presence of a happy God. Happy to see his people. Happy to welcome them under the blood of Christ. This is what you are running to, do not stop running the race. Let's pray this morning. Father, true indeed are the words that glorious things of you are spoken in What a great privilege is ours that we are a part of that glory. We get to enter into it and sing its commendation forever and ever. I pray, Father, for myself and for these people that we would believe in the power of the blood of Christ to forgive our sins. and that we would cling tightly and tenaciously to our profession in spite of the difficulties and the trials and the sorrows that your good hand will bring to us along the way. So that we might someday fully appreciate the spectacular glory of your grace. May these things be so for us in Jesus' name, amen.