ice and power outages and whatever I see that the there was a power outage. Hopefully it's over now at 11, but for the Cox's up there in Bay City. But we will, once we're done here, of course, we'll upload the sermon here, the broadcast to those sites, Sermon Audio and YouTube. So you can watch them later on if, for some reason, because of the power or whatever that And if we drop the power, we have a backup camera going. So anyway, hopefully there won't be any of those problems. I wanted to start off with a couple of announcements here and take advantage of the fact that we're looking at the computer screen. So Verla, are they looking at the computer screen there? All right, so hopefully everybody was able to listen to that really good message this morning that we designated for Sunday school, The Devil and the Nations by MLJ. sermon on Ephesians 6, 10 to 13. There's some more of those sermons there on that same passage on spiritual warfare in his series on Ephesians. But you know, here's this site then. I sent you the link for this sermon, but you know, I just wanted everybody to be aware of this site that you can go to It's the MLJ Trust, Martin Lloyd Jones Trust, and you can see here, it's quite the resource, really. You can go by topic, but if you go to his sermons here and click on that, then you'll see it says major sermon collections, okay? So here's all these, yeah, what are there? 366 sermons on the Book of Romans. from chapter 1 right on through. Then he's got 263 on the Gospel of John, 232 on Ephesians, and then some are grouped by the Old Testament. There's 133 there. There's 121 sermons on the Book of Acts. And then some other, here's his sermon series, which is in the book called Spiritual Depression, but you can listen to those. There's 24 sermons there. So at any rate, this is one of the, preeminent, most valuable resources online that you could get. And you've heard me say before, if you just started listening to these series, one sermon after another, maybe a couple a week and following along in your Bible, you would grow immensely. So, Anyway, that's where the sermon that you listened to came from on the, what was it, the devil and the nations. That was a great message for today. And then I also wanted to point you to this other site that you've heard me talk about. This one's called America Out Loud. Now this is not specifically a Christian, meant to be a Christian platform here. You just go to americaoutloud.com and then this will come up. It's a conservative and in large ways, political, but also deals with the culture wars and so forth. But recently I started, I had the opportunity to start writing a weekly article for America Out Loud. And I just wanted to show you that because, you know, what I'm doing here, you're all a part of. and our church is all a part of. If you go to the menu, for example, all right, and you come down here to authors and hosts, okay, authors and hosts, just pick that off the menu, and then you have a bunch of pictures here. These are people that write articles or have regular podcasts, here on various topics and here's yours truly here so here's my picture and I just started so I've only got like three articles up here but if you click on the person's picture has a little bio there then you see here's the articles there's the the latest one comes first. So what I'm trying to do is not just, I'm not trying to be political here. My job is to preach the word of God. But they wanted me to write specifically about things like the culture wars that we see going on. So I've written a few on the war on borders here and the danger of novelty in woke academia. But my purpose is to take a subject in the culture wars, for example, what's going on, and apply God's word to it. That's the unique contribution here. So the next one that's going to come up is entitled, Socialism's Rejection of Reward for Merit. And I'm applying in that essay Paul's instruction at Timothy, if anyone's not willing to work, let him not eat. So to give people a biblical perspective then on these issues. And of course, in the course of things, as time goes along, there will be opportunities to present the gospel. Just as you heard, if you listened to MLJ this morning, The Devil and the Nations, he said people beat around the bush, you know, we're going to solve the problems with economic fixes or we're going to have the League of Nations united. It'll never work. Fundamentally, we've got to get down to the fact that there's sin and Christ is the only solution. So anyway, there that is, America Out Loud. And so we have an opportunity there to preach the gospel. There's no end to the topics. I've got a bunch of sticky notes here. of articles and things that I could write. There's, of course, all the nonsense that's going on with gender. What does the Bible say about that? When I wrote about borders, I was like, what does the Bible have to say about national borders? Well, there's the Tower of Babel, right? It's God's will that there be borders separating the nations. Wokeism in the church. Crime, Romans 13, the function of government. And so what about the second amendment and self-defense and the right to bear arms? Does the Bible have anything to say about that? Not only does the Bible have things to say about those things, the Bible is the ultimate place to go because it's God's word. So anyway, there's that site. America, America out loud. So, all right, well with that, let's go then to God's Word. See if I click on the right thing here. That's sermon audio, so we don't want that just yet. what we want is right here. Here we go. All right. You can see it on your screen. This is the 75th Psalm. The ESV entitles it, God Will Judge With Equity. We give thanks to you, O God. We give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds. the set time that I appoint, I will judge with equity. See, all of a sudden it seems like now God's speaking, right? When the earth totters and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars. I say to the boastful, do not boast, and to the wicked, Do not lift up your horn on high or speak with haughty neck, for not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs." It's a cup of his wrath. But I will declare it forever. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns, the power of the wicked, I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up. Well, we're going to go before the Lord now in prayer, and the weekly prayer focus is one of our online followers, distance follower, Lynn. and she would like us to pray specifically, I think, for her job and that she'd be able to do a good job and also to be a good witness for the Lord there. So, let's go before the Lord then in prayer. Father, we come to you now, this Lord's Day, Thank you that we have the opportunity to meet together, even though it's a bit different this morning. But we thank you for this day. We thank you for your church. Thank you that we're going to have the opportunity to hear more about your church from your word in a few moments. Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. and for the great salvation that you've given to us in him. Father, we pray that if anyone listening this morning is still dead in their sins, and particularly if they're dead in their sins but they think that they're just okay with you, everything's good, when it's not, we pray, Father, that you might show them mercy, open their eyes, use your law to terrify and drive them to Christ that they might be saved. Father, we lift up this nation before you. It is largely an evil nation. We thank you that you do have your remnant here that you always sustain. Thank you for the body of Christ that's your kingdom that's in this nation. But we know that so much evil is on the increase and that there is evil in the highest places in the land. There's corruption, there's bribery, there is treason and lying. There's immorality and we could go right on down the list of all the Ten Commandments, all of your law being broken. Father, we pray that you would remove the wicked and put a righteous king, a righteous president and leaders in position in this nation. And we don't pray that because we are putting our faith or trust in any politician, any man, any person that we might want to get elected to office. We do want to see a righteous person elected as president. And yet, at the same time, we know, Father, that It is not through man that this world is going to be remedied. It's only through the Lord Jesus Christ. And ultimately, it's only going to happen when he comes again and judges the world in righteousness. And we pray then this morning that he would come soon and set things right. Father, we pray that you would enable your people to stand faithfully for Christ in this evil world, that we would not compromise. We'd be willing to follow Christ wherever he would lead us, even if it means persecution and suffering, which to some degree it always will for every real Christian. And we pray that you just use us to your honor and glory. We pray that you might give us opportunity to be able to present the gospel to our unsaved neighbors. We're surrounded with people who regard you as irrelevant. who they suppress any thought about you, about Christ, about your word, about your church, and they are perishing in sin. But we lift them up before you. We pray that your spirit might convict them mightily, that they might be saved, that you might grant them faith and repentance. Father, we pray for Joanne this morning. We ask your blessing on her. She's suffering and in pain and we pray that when she goes to the doctor this week, they would be able to find a remedy. We thank you for her, that she's been a faithful sister in Christ for all these years to us and to you. And so we ask your blessing upon her. We pray that you would protect her and bless her. And Father, we also pray for Lynn. Thank you for her. We pray that you would work in her life to cause her faith to grow and that you would bless her. You give her opportunity at work to be a good witness for you there and you'd give her wisdom, she'd be able to do a good job and be respected by her, by her coworkers. And so we ask your blessing then upon her. And Father, now, as we continue in this worship service, we pray that you would, well, that our worship would be, of you would be true worship in spirit and in truth. And we pray this all in Christ's name, amen. All right then, we want to, this is a music less worship service this morning, so we're not really set up well to include the music, so you'll have to handle the singing then yourself. But let's go now to the scripture reading, and we're gonna find it back in, way back in Exodus, Exodus chapter 19, and we're gonna start at verse 16. This is Moses and the Israelites, some three months, I think it was, after they had crossed the Red Sea, and they've come to Mount Sinai. And this is where the Lord comes down to Sinai, and then he's going to give them the law, This is the classic Moses going up on the mountain to receive the tablets and so on. And you'll see as we come to the sermon, why are we going to be looking at this through the eyes of the apostle in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12. So here we go, we're gonna start then at, Verse 16. On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and went up. And Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, go down and warn the people lest they break through to the Lord to look. Many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves lest the Lord break out against them. Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it. The Lord said to him, Go down and come up, bringing Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them, Chapter 20, here we have, of course, the Ten Commandments. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children of the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter, your male servant or female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who's within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that's in them rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land and that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. Now, when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning, and the sound of the trumpet, the mountains smoking. The people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, You speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die. Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin. The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was." And there then is the Word of God, and we are to receive it as such. Well, this morning then, with that background, what we want to do is come one final time, a tenth time, to our consideration of the Apostles' Creed. And we want to focus particularly this morning on the Declaration of Faith, I believe, in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints. What is the universal church and what is this communion of saints? These are the things we want to look at and we're going to do so with the help of Hebrews chapter 12 verses 18 to 25 and we'll be reading those shortly then. So let's ask the Lord's blessing then on the ministry of his word. Father, we come now to your Word. We confess that it is your Word. It's not just another book, but it is the Word of Almighty God. And it is true. It's infallible. It's powerful. And we pray, Father, that by your Spirit, you would unleash the power of your Word in us. that our faith would be increased, that we would know you and love you more, that we would fear you, hold you in proper awe and reverence as we should, that we might obey you and glorify you. So we ask your blessing now, Father, as we come to this scripture and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. All right then, well just for review, let's read together. I have it here on the screen so that we can follow along. It's a little weird preaching from a computer screen, but we'll see how this goes. Here's the Apostles' Creed, as you recall. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. Oh, and by the way, I should say, Case pointed this out to me. This is from the URC, United Reformed Church Denominations website here, the Apostles Creed, and you run into some variations. He pointed this out to me. I wasn't aware of it, but one of the variations here is that in some of the other Apostles Creed copies, right? It's interesting that they have left out this word begotten, his only begotten son. I don't know what the history is behind that, but at any rate, this is probably a more historic version of it. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell, On the third day he rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From there he shall come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church. the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Well, here then is the phrase I wanted to see it boldface here, the part of the creed that I wanted to focus on this morning. And you recall, you know, by now that this word Catholic has been hijacked by Rome. Rome, the Roman Catholic Church is not Catholic because the word here means universal. Rome will say, well, we are the church. Well, that's not a universal church, that claim there'll be, but when we say the Holy Catholic Church, it's that original meaning. We believe in the universal church, the holy and true universal church and the communion of saints, you see. Well, what are we saying then? When we make this confession, this creed, we recite these words, I believe in a universal church. I believe in the communion of the saints. What does that mean? Well, it's no exaggeration to say that a proper understanding of these two doctrines, right, the church universal and the communion of the saints, will have, if you get a hold of what these things really mean, it will have a radical impact on your thinking, upon you, as to what's happening when we gather together as a church. Here's just an example. Now, of course, this morning we're here online, and people are in their homes, but every Lord's Day, we have part of our local church here, Christ Reformation Church, spread all around the country, right, as people, they're part of our local church, and they join us then online, but we are joined far more than just online, and those are the kind of things that we want to look at. Here in our church, right, in our church here, and when I mean our church, I mean Christ Church here locally, Christ Reformation Church, Most everybody online knows, I've said it before, there's only about 20 of us, maybe a little more. That's all. That's all. And so we need to be reminded of the things we're going to be looking at here. unless we look around and say, well, nothing's happening here. Boy, if God was really blessing us, there'd be a whole lot more people. All of that kind of numbers thinking, nope, nope, that's not where we want to go. So I hope that this will be very encouraging to you this morning to look at these things. Now, listen to Hebrews chapter 12, all right? Verse 18, now you'll see why we read out of Exodus. For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, and to a blazing fire, and to darkness, and gloom, and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet, The sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, if even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I am full of fear, and trembling. So here the apostle really elaborates on and describes for us in more detail what it was like there at Mount Sinai. And even then, even reading this, it's still not the same as if we were there. It was a terrifying These are things that are alien to most professing Christians today, you see, but save that topic for another time. Verse 22, but you, you Christians, you people in the new covenant, you that are in Christ, you've come, right, to a different mountain. You've come to Mount Zion. and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel. Now, here's this scene. The Israelites come out of Egypt. They've seen all of the plagues, all the miracles, their great deliverance, the Passover, the whole thing. Then they see this miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea, the destruction of Pharaoh's army, and so forth. And then three months later, just three months, relatively short time later, the Lord brings them to Mount Sinai. And you remember, let's look at it again. This is what the Lord told Moses. The Lord said to Moses, behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud. so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe in you forever.' Then Moses told the words of the people to the Lord." Let's see here. I was going to try to get rid of this stuff at the top, but never mind. Distraction. As you have already heard this morning, then, from our reading of Exodus 19, right, and 20, this was where God established the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant with Israel. He gave them the law and he told them it was for blessing, great blessing if they obeyed the law, and cursing and condemnation if they disobeyed the law. Now, anyone today, and there's plenty of people that fit this category, even those that are church members, so many of them and so on, people that today believe they're good enough to make it to heaven when they die. Right? People, come on, really, honestly, does anybody really want to go to hell? Somebody would have to be crazy to do that. Even these people that say, I'll see you in hell. Well, that might maybe be the case, because that's probably where they're headed, all right. But nevertheless, people think they have this fantasy in their mind, I'm good enough, I'm not perfect, but I'm good enough and God's, yeah, God, He'll let me in, it'll be okay. But the truth of the matter is, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from being in Him, being born again in Christ, The sinner's supposed good works are only going to take them to that terror of Mount Sinai, because they're coming to God based upon the law. and the law can only condemn. What they're going to find is pure justice from God who is a consuming fire, all right? This terror that the Israelites experienced there at Mount Sinai in the days of Moses, that was just an inkling of what is going to happen when someone stands before the Lord in judgment apart from Christ, you see. Now, we might ask this. How come the Lord terrorized the Israelites there? And that's what he did. It was terrible. It was a terror. He appeared to them. How come he did this? This does not appear to be the God that so many professing Christians have created in their mind, you see. They want to say, well, that was the Old Testament. God's not like that today, right? Well, he's the same yesterday, today and forever. Well, the Lord purposely did this at Sinai so that the people would be terrified of him. This was the greatest example of someone having the fear of God put into them, you know. Listen to the description again. Here's this mountain that can be touched, Mount Sinai, to blazing fire, to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. What would that be? I mean, we can't imagine that. We can imagine something being so loud that we'd say, make it stop, make it stop, cover your ears and so on. But a sound that was in itself, and I'm sure it was loud, there was a blast of a trumpet, but it was the voice. There was something about the sound of words. So when you've got the sound of words, you've got a voice, right? These are words being spoken. Perhaps it was the words of the law. We don't know for sure, but it was a voice that in its nature was so terrifying that the people pleaded with Moses to make it stop. They wanted him to be a mediator, they wanted him to talk to them, but they couldn't stand it then anymore. That's worth thinking about. What kind of a blast of a trumpet, what kind of a trumpet is that? That the blast of it, and then a voice comes, And those things are so terrifying that people are pleading, make it stop, make it stop, please make it stop. And I think what is so terrible about it is that it represented God in his perfection, in his perfect justice, as he is met, as he is when he is met by the sinner. apart without Christ. That's what people, if you're not born again, if you don't know Christ and you die today, which you could, any of us could, this is what you're going to find. You hear people, oh, I saw this wonderful light, it was so comforting. That's not what you're gonna see. This is what you're gonna see, because this is God in his pure, holy, holy, holy holiness, when met by a person who's dead in their sins. They could not bear the command, if even it be, this is how, holy God is. If you know an animal were to walk up and just step on there on the border of the mountain, that's it. It had to be put to death. And Moses even is trembling in fear, you see. This is the most ultimate hellfire and brimstone message ever proclaimed. And why did the Lord do it? Well, see it again. They see all the thunder and there's all this lightning's going on. The ground is shaking, the mountains smoking. You can imagine some liberals, higher critic, oh well, you know, that's just somebody, you know, it was a volcano or something like that and they're injecting that and representing this as scripture and so forth. I don't think you'd see, I don't think, I haven't heard of a volcano that had a terrifying voice and trumpet coming from it where people begged it then to stop. But his purpose is, Moses said to the people, don't fear, God's come to test you. You know, what he's saying is, this is for your good, that the fear of him may be before you. And why did he want them to fear him? Because he knew that in their sin, they were gonna sin. So he's causing them to fear, emphasizing the condemnation that the law will bring, so they won't sin. course, they're going to go and sin then anywhere. And that's why the Lord did this, to put the fear of God in them. This shows you the depth of sin. This shows you the bondage of sin, because how does it work out? Before Moses even comes down with the tablets, he's coming down, what's going on? They've already built the golden calf. They're already worshiping an idol. In a sense, you might say, they've broken the law of God before the ink was wet on it, you see. So here's this fearful, smoking, terrible mountain. And as we said, if you fancy in your mind that God's favor is upon you just because of who you are, try to be good and this kind of a thing, but you're not born again, you don't know Christ, you're not going to meet this fictitious God that we're told about that, oh, He just loves everybody and He's so forgiving and so on. No, He's not. Not apart from Christ. Apart from Christ, there's no mercy. You'll never find mercy in God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. His law is, well, here it is, Galatians 3, for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it's written, curse be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Now, it's evident that no one's justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith, all right? It would be a good thing for all of us to ask ourselves, have I really, really, have I obeyed all things in the law? Have I obeyed perfectly? Perfectly. Always. the Ten Commandments. Only a fool would claim that they've done that. But see, people want to say, well, oh, no, I haven't done it perfectly, but I've done pretty well. You know, I've tried. Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law. And then Deuteronomy, here's another example, Deuteronomy 29, beware lest there be among you a man or a woman or a clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. That's when they come into the land, going to be tempted to worship the idols of the pagan nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit. One who, a person, right, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart. Now get this, blesses himself in his heart saying, I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, this will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. That's a classic statement there, isn't it? Isn't that what people are saying today? I'll be safe. I'll walk in the stubbornness. I'm going to do my own thing, but it's going to be okay. God will let me off the hook. It's not going to be okay. I suppose you might say the thundering and smoking and terrifying voice at Mount Sinai was a cakewalk compared to what it's going to be to stand before God in judgment and not be in Christ. There's no mercy in the holy justice of God for the man or woman who insists on relying upon their own merit to be acceptable to God. There isn't any. That's why the cross Hello, right? Think about it. If there was some way apart from the cross to access God's mercy, why would God the Father have ever sent his son to the cross to die? There was another way. It's because there is no salvation, there is no mercy to be found in the holy, holy, holy God. Isaiah knew that. Woe is me. I'm undone, I'm coming apart at the seams. My eyes have seen the Lord of glory and I dwell among, I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. And then the Lord comes and essentially, man of the burning coals and so forth, purifies him as a picture of the salvation then in Christ. Now, I want to give another warning here, all right? Because it's easy for us to hear the things that we're reading here now, the scriptures we're reading, and you're hearing this sermon. We need to beware. And what I mean by that is, I was reading John Calvin's sermon on this point recently, and it really struck me when he stated the obvious. Here's what he said. There's no mercy to be found apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. God's judgment of the wicked, of all who refuse to come to Christ in repentance and faith, is merciless. I want to emphasize that again, all right? It's merciless. People don't really believe that, and it's easy for us, even as Christians, to kind of get pretty sketchy in our thinking about that. There, oh, but there must be mercy. There's always mercy. No, there's not. No, there's not. That's what he's saying. Under the law, you're only going to be cursed. There's no mercy there, you see. You hear today sometimes, often, you know, of a criminal, and they've admitted their guilt and so forth, and they've been convicted, and then the day comes for them to be sentenced. And either they say or their attorney says for him, I throw myself on the mercy of the court. And maybe they'll receive some mercy. Oftentimes today, it seems like that happens too often. But you see, when, what's going to happen to the person who thinks, well, I'll just, I'll throw myself on the mercy of God and everything will be okay. But there is no mercy. There won't be any mercy. And that's what Mount Sinai, this smoking, fiery hurricane, tempest and so forth, is telling us here. Lord, I throw myself upon your mercy. No, I'm not in Christ. I didn't have any use for him. I did my own thing in religion, but I'm just looking for mercy. I've heard you're a merciful God. And Mount Sinai tells us that there's no mercy to be found there. It's not going to work. touch the mountain with the tip of your finger and you're done because you're unclean in your sin. And here's a point that I really wanted to make here. Martin Lloyd-Jones, and probably some of you have heard him say this because he said it often, he gave us this warning, all right? You hear these things. You know, it's like Paul is preaching about the wickedness of the Gentiles in Romans chapter one. And all the time that he's doing that, here's the Jew over here saying, that's right, that's absolutely right. Boy, those Gentiles, they're under sin. But by the time Paul gets to chapter two, He said, do you think God, who are you, old man? And he's talking to the Jews. Do you think God's going to let you off the hook? You who say that God's going to judge these Gentiles, but you're doing the very same thing, you think that he's going to let you off the hook? And Lloyd-Jones' point when he was commenting on that is to warn us of this. He said, you, this is a paraphrase of his words, you hear these things. All right? You hear these things, that there's no mercy in God under the law, right? You hear that justification is not by the law, but only by faith in Christ. And you think that you get it. You think that you believe it. You think that you understand. You can repeat the words. But then what happens? You go right back out into your weekly life and you live and think and function in a manner that betrays the fact that you don't get it. You're still relying upon who you are, upon your works. You're still striving in terms of the biblical words to be justified by works of the law. You're still bound by the mentality that you're going to be accepted by God because of your own merit and works. And you know, after all in the world here, maybe you're doing pretty good. Maybe the people around you are praising you. Oh yeah, here's good old so-and-so. And it's just working out really good. And so in your mind, surely God's going to do the same, but you're wrong. You're wrong. Just like these people, and there's lots of them, were wrong. Matthew 7. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And we might say today, well, weren't we church members? We were baptized. We had our Bibles and so forth. Yeah, yeah, we were. I was an officer in the church. I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." They thought they got it, but they didn't get it. They didn't get it, you see. They were trusting in their own works. They don't say, Lord, Lord, we We rest only in the Lord Jesus Christ. We rest only in your blood shed for us. They didn't say that. What they did say is, well, we did this, we did this, we did this. And I would say probably even most typical church members, that is their mentality. They think they get it, but they don't get it. But look, look, when you hear the rumblings of Mount Sinai, here, we can say, listen, you better get it. And you better get it now. Because when you stand before the Lord, it'll be, it's too late then. It's too late. This calls for ruthless honesty with ourselves. It's only one thing to be found at Mount Sinai in the Old Covenant in the works of the law. It's condemnation. It's hell. It's eternal death. Why is that? Because the law is evil or deficient somehow? No, because we are born into this. We are evil. The sinner is evil and lawless and hates the law of God. And so the law only condemns. But, but, and by the way, that's the first part of the gospel, right? The law. But the Apostle goes on here, verse 22, Hebrews 12, but you, that's the Christian, those that are in Christ, you have come to a different mountain. You've come to Mount Zion. and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Now as Paul says in Romans 7, the law is holy and righteous and good. The problem is sin. The problem is the sinner and his lawlessness. One thing that the law does, in its work of condemning the sinner, is it leads us to Christ and an entirely different mountain. an entirely different kingdom. This is Mount Zion. They're talking about the heavenly Jerusalem and so forth, the kingdom of God. What does the law do in this respect? The moral law, that is the first, the Ten Commandments, shows the sinner his or her need for Christ. Because if they're honest, they haven't obeyed the law at all, all right? Somebody says they've obeyed the law or they're doing a pretty good job, whatever, they're just a liar. They're deceiving themselves. So the moral law of God... It shows us we're not moral, that we're sinners, can't obey the law. Shows us our need for Christ. That's what's supposed to happen. Secondly, the ceremonial laws, the sacrifices, the tabernacle, the priesthood, all this kind of a thing, all of these are all the time in the old covenant pointing us to Christ, pointing us to Christ and is atoning work for us. This is what that Mount Sinai, that rumbling, smoking, terrifying mountain, and the law that was given there should have shown the Israelites if they would have been honest with themselves, right? They would have shown that if they'd have been honest, they'd have said, we're done. I mean, we are done. There is no way. Moses even told him, you're not going to be able to obey the law. They should have seen that. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Remember the people in Acts after Peter had preached and you crucified your Messiah and they were cut to the quick. What are we going to do? What shall we do? Right? But that didn't happen with these Israelites. What happened with them was, Exodus 24, Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words that the Lord has spoken we will do. Never were there more foolish and dishonest, boastful words spoken than that. What do you mean, all the words the Lord has spoken we will do? You kidding me? There's no way you're gonna do that. But that's how they deluded themselves. And they should have seen then, their need for a way to be put right with God. besides the law, because this law is only going to condemn. They should have come to the conclusion there has to be another way, because we can't obey this law. We're going to break it on the first day. We can't obey this law. If we're going to be put right with God, there's got to be a different way. Again, if there's anybody listening today that is of this mentality, I mean, That you think, oh yeah, yeah, Ten Commandments, there you go. Yep, I didn't murder anybody. Did you ever covet anything? Did you ever envy anybody? Did you ever get angry with someone and curse them? That's murder, Jesus said. What do you mean you obey? What do you mean you think you're good enough? to stand before God and deserve His mercy. No, an honest response here is, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm undone. Unless you provide another way, unless you do it, and effect us another salvation, I'm gonna end in hell. And of course, Christ is that way. It's in Christ that we find mercy. And as the apostle tells us here, in him, we are welcomed into the city of the living God. We're welcome to go up on Mount Zion. and to be in fellowship with angels and saints and so forth that have gone before us. Well, now with all of that background, we're ready to come to this matter of the church universal. I believe in the holy universal Catholic church and the communion of the saints. Well, those are the doctrines that are fundamental truths and they are part of the gospel. In fact, a little addendum here, I would say the entire Apostles' Creed is a statement of the gospel. I don't think there's any part of the Apostles' Creed that you can jettison and not confess and still say that your faith is in the gospel. It becomes another gospel, you see. So look at it again. Listen to this again. These are pretty amazing. but you, this is the communion of the saints, this is a church universal, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. sound effects. Mocha must have liked that passage. Anyway, we've talked about becoming a pet-friendly church, but I don't think that's going to work out very well. Mocha wouldn't last. Now look, we all then need to get our thinking about the church tuned up. because, well, let me show you why. First of all, let's face up to this. The local church is not a social club, right? I suppose if I had it to do over again and knew what I know now, 30 years ago when I first came as pastor to this church, I think it would have been a good thing if I had just told everybody that was there. I'd say, here's your assignment for this week. It's like it happened to you when you stepped out of line in grade school, right? I want you to go home and I want you to write 500 times. Be ready to hand in your paper next week. I want you to write 500 times the local church. Well, I would put it this way. This church is not a social club. 500 times, and maybe people start to get it. This church is not a social club. Now, why am I emphasizing that? Because that's what most church members think the church is, and it's very easy for us to get drawn into that wrong thinking because we look not by faith at the things that are unseen, angels and festival gatherings and so forth, but we look at the things that are seen. So we gather together each week and we see each other and we greet one another. We practice some things that you might find in a community club, right? A social club, potlucks, visiting with one another and so on. in and of themselves, those things are not bad. But a social club is a society formed by people, not by God, but formed by people for various purposes, like a community service or just a format for people to socialize and visit and so on. But the church is not a social club. It's not a creation of man. The church is this. Christ Reformation Church, this tiny little church at the edge of nowhere. is this. So then, Ephesians 2, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom The whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. The local church of believers banded together are the holy temple of God where Christ by his spirit dwells. None of that's true about a mere social club. So when we meet together on the Lord's Day, be it by means of, we were at a great distance from one another, but we joined together in hearing the word of God and worshiping God and so forth. But when we meet together, for example, on the Lord's day, what the apostles telling us in Hebrews 12, is there's a whole lot more going on than meets the eye. And you've got to see it by faith. not by sight, all right? Listen to the verses again. You have come, gather together on the Lord's day, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. That's the communion of the saints. Let's talk about that a little more. When a true church, that is a body of genuine believers, people that are in Christ, they're born again, when they gather together, for example on the Lord's Day, The attendance is a whole lot bigger than it looks. And I want to give credit where credit's due. I heard R.C. Sproul emphasize this in a sermon that I heard him preach recently on worship. The attendance is much larger than it looks, because in attendance are innumerable angels in festal gathering. What does that look like? Not only are there countless angels gathered with us, but there are others whom the apostle calls the assembly of the firstborn. And let's see what that means. That word assembly, that's why I bold-faced it over here, the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, that word assembly, the Greek word behind it is ecclesia. It's the same word that we translate as church. And that's why I think in the King James, it has the church of the firstborn, right? That word firstborn, is in plural. It's not referring to Christ. Now, Christ is the firstborn of God, but this is referring to believers, as we'll see in a moment, who are still in this world. They haven't passed out of this life yet and gone to heaven. He mentions them to, he mentions them later here, the spirits of the righteous made perfect. That's our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in heaven already, right? Their earthly life is over. But this phrase, the assembly of the firstborn, is referring to genuine believers that are still alive in this present world, worldwide, no matter where they are. Why are they called firstborn? Because the firstborn is an heir. If you're in Christ, you are an heir to all the promises to Abraham, to everything that Christ gives us and so forth. Listen to this quote from a preacher of olden days, Dr. John Brown. He was a pastor in Edinburgh, Scotland. He lived from 1784 to 1858. And he wrote a commentary. on Hebrews, and you can still buy it today from Banner of Truth Publishing. It's in the Geneva series of commentary. C.H. Spurgeon highly commended John Brown. Listen to John Brown then. The general idea in Hebrews 12 here is that you, Christian, are brought into intimate relation with the whole host of Holy Spirits. That means believers. By the mediation of Jesus Christ, the apostle informs us that it is the purpose of God in the New Testament era of the fullness of times to bring together into one holy society things on earth and things in heaven. Things on earth, the church on earth, church in heaven. Christians come to angels not by sensible, that is, visible fellowship, but by spiritual relations. Upon our being reconciled to God in Christ, we are also reconciled to all of his holy creatures, including the angels. They love us and we love them. We all engage in substantially the same religious services. We have the same joys. Even in the present state, even while we're here in this world, the angels, though unseen by us, minister to our welfare. There really is such a thing as guardian angels. They're looking over us and protect us. In due time, The barriers in the way of immediate fellowship will be removed when Christ comes again. And equal to the angels of God, we shall mingle with them in an unreserved interchange of thought and feeling. You thought about that, right? Here's this, we come together to worship. There's the angels, innumerable numbers of angels worshiping with us. But angels are not the only citizens of the New Jerusalem. Brown goes on. We come to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. The word rendered church, ecclesia is here, as I understand, referring to the whole body of truly good men, true Christians, still on earth, viewed as one great assembly. Doesn't matter what nation, country they're in, right? Many commentators consider this to refer to the sacred assembly in heaven, but those are afterwards described as spirits of just men made perfect. In other places in scripture where persons are described as having their names written in heaven or in the book of life, they're always spoken of as being on earth still. The people of God, he says, are termed the firstborn, as Israel was called, my son, my firstborn. Firstborn then marks them as dedicated to the service of God and the heirs of the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away. And because their names are enrolled in the heavenly album, the Lamb's Book of Life, We understand that they are genuine Christians. They're not just people who have been admitted to church membership, external communion in a visible church, but they are people who also have been admitted to the fellowship of the true church by the great head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. The idea is this, in becoming Christians, you become connected. with the whole body of the faithful, an innumerable company called out from mankind, a kindred of people in a tongue." This should start the wheels turning here, and it should be encouraging to all of us Convicting, look, if anyone listening, if you've been flaky in church attendance, if you've been flaky in remembering the Lord's day to keep it holy, well then you should be convicted by this, but you should also be convicted to repent and start realizing, look at When you let the world draw you away from your church, from the worship of God on the Lord's day, for example, when you let the world draw you away, you've got innumerable angels, many of whom who have been assigned to watch over you. You've got the rest of the true church still in this world, You've got the saints, and he's gonna talk about that, and the prophets and so forth, and the apostles, and all the saints that have gone before us and are in heaven now. And I don't think it's overstating the fact, not to mention Christ himself and God the Father, I don't think it's overstating the fact that they're grieved if I'm not there, right? I mean, Stan, they, They love me. These are our brothers in Christ, and we say that we love them. This is a big deal here. What do these choirs in heaven sound like? What is all of this? What is the tremendous privilege in saying, I couldn't make it? Something's wrong there, right? So the kingdom of God is here in this world, The king is enthroned on heaven, but the kingdom of Christ is not only there, it's here, it's extended into this world in the form of his church. And so on the Lord's day, when we gather together, even though we in this Christ Reformation Church are a tiny body, we are in reality really part of the most mega church of all. We're joined in worship with angels so numerous they can't be counted. That's what we're declaring when we say, I believe in the communion of the saints. I believe in the universal church. And there's more. Listen to Brown again. But what is greater and more glorious still? We come to God, the judge of all. Christians approach They draw near the judge. The Israelites stood afar off, you know, trembling, afraid, terrified. But the Christian draws near with boldness to the judge, the God of all, the God of all the citizens of Zion, he of whom all the family in heaven and in earth are named. And He acknowledges them with favor and approval. And also, we, they, come to the spirits of just men made perfect. That is, to the spirits of departed holy men and women who have finished their course and obtained their reward. They who by the faith of the truth become the subjects of the new economy, the new era. They sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, all the true confessors in the kingdom of their father. He quotes this verse from a hymn. One family, we dwell in him. One church above and beneath. though now divided by the stream, the narrow stream of death. That's the only thing that divides us from the church victorious in heaven. Remember, reference to that stream, right? Remember a pilgrim at the end, or a Christian in pilgrim progress, crossing the stream, representing death, and then he's in heaven. Just one more comment from John Brown, and then we'll close with that. And I hope that all of this will cause us to think very carefully now about the church universal and the communion of the saints when we gather together. Listen to what he says. We are bound together by the tie which binds us to one God and one Savior. We think along with them. We feel along with them. They love us and we love them. It is very probable that the fellowship on their side with us, even while we're here, is more intimate than we're aware of. They know us, they see it. They're closer to us than we realize. And yet in a little while, The whole family of Christ, the whole church, will be assembled in their Father's house, never more to go out forever. We do not come in Christ to the old priesthood, the ironical priesthood, the mediator of the old covenant, to that shaking Mount Sinai. We come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, who is the brightness of the Father's glory, who has by himself purged our sins and has set down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Let me leave you with just one final thought. big local churches, right? Here's our, this little church here, a handful of people and so on. You ever envy, I mean you might see one on television or maybe you're on vacation and you've visited tons more people and a big choir and a big great big organ and all of these kinds of things, big sanctuary, full orchestra, maybe hundreds, maybe even thousands of choirs. Do you envy them? That's a mistake. There's nothing there to envy. If you envy that, you look at that, you're walking by sight, not by faith. I've had people tell me, you know, man, you gotta make something happen here. Let's get things going. You don't have very many people. Nobody in our church that's in our church now has ever said that to me, but people have said that. And here's my response. We don't need, and this isn't just my response, this is what Hebrews has been telling us here, right? We don't need to make something happen here. we need to see what is already happening. And that's what the apostle here in Hebrews has been showing us. This is what's really happening. You need to see it and believe it, see it by faith. You are a member of a church. If you're a Christian, if you're born again, you are a member of a church that cannot be numbered. Your church has a choir that will blow you away when you hear it. And that choir, that heavenly choir joins with us when we sing a hymn. Countless saints join us when we hear God's word preached. Angels themselves gather with us. If you will see these things by faith, then what's going to happen is the world beckoning you to disregard the assembling together of Christ's people, or to cause you to be discouraged sometimes because you don't have a huge assembly visible of people, that temptation is going to lose its hold on you. And you will long more and more to see the day when all of these things become visible then to our own eyes. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for this great encouragement. We pray that we would, by your word, be convicted where we need to be convicted of sin. We would ask your forgiveness that you would cleanse us and that you would increase our faith. Father, we thank you that that there is this communion of the saints, that we are joined in one body, and there's one body, one faith, one baptism. We are one with Martin Luther, and John Calvin, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and all of the saints that have gone before us. Father, we thank you for the privilege of coming together as your church here in this world. We pray that you would sustain us and encourage us. Forgive us for sins of envy or sins of unbelief. Father, we pray that you would give us more and more faith that we might see with the eyes of faith the glories that are described for us here and embrace them and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.