Christmas is a time of contrast. Caleb made this point last week in introducing the song that Anna played, the Coventry Carol. There's contrast between the throne room of heaven that the Son of God left behind and the rude manger in which the baby Jesus was laid. There's contrast between the reception this baby received from the angelic hosts and the deadly reception devised by King Herod in the slaughter of the innocents. There's contrast between the humble circumstances of Jesus' family and the truth that Jesus was born King of the Jews in the royal line of David on both sides of his family. And these contrasts play an outsized part in many of the Christmas carols that we sing at this season. And the contrasts continue today in our modern celebration of Christmas. There is contrast between the actual facts of the Christmas story, the birth of the Messiah, and what so many human beings know about Christmas, which is Santa Claus and Rudolph, and maybe as adults, Hallmark Schmaltz. I had occasion this week to look at every book for children to be found at our local TJ Maxx. Obviously, I was looking for a gift. Most of the books were Christmas books at this time of year. of the 100 or so that I looked at, there was one about the birth of Jesus. Another contrast. In our celebration of Christmas, there's often contrast between the joy that is supposed to characterize this season, joy to the world, and how many people actually experience this season. For many, it is a time of darkness and depression. It is a time of family conflict and frustration. And finally, there is a contrast, even for Bible-believing Christians like us, between what should be a time to pause and reflect and worship the incarnate Son of God, and the hectic pace of getting everything done, all the normal Christmas stuff done, decorating and parties and cards and shopping and wrapping and feasting and more and more and more. Well, I'm going to add a couple of contrasts this morning. from my text here in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews. Let's read verses 18 through 24. Hebrews 12, verses 18 through 24. For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire into blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words and some Translations translate that thunder. So that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. But you have come to Mount Zion. and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to the God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Now there's a sense in which the entire book of Hebrews is a contrast. A contrast between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Between the covenant that God mediated through Moses at Mount Sinai, the covenant that we see documented in the first three or four books of the Bible, And then the covenant that God mediated through His Son, Jesus Christ, at the cross. And we see it documented in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. The key word in the book of Hebrews is better. The new covenant is better than the Old Covenant, better in this way, and better in that way, and better in this way, and better in that way. And the paragraph that we just read is really a recap of this entire book. There's 13 chapters in the book of Hebrews. This is at the end of the 12th chapter. So the author here is recapping. And in verses 18 through 21, the author recounts the institution or the constitution of the old covenant at Mount Sinai. And then in verses 22 through 24, the author recounts the glories of the new covenant that are given to us as God's people today. And the two sections stand in stark contrast. And I call them this morning a Christmas contrast. Because Jesus came on that first Christmas morn to be the mediator of the new covenant. So let's trace this Christmas contrast this morning a little more quickly than I had intended. Now, for someone who's unfamiliar with the Old Testament, this paragraph can be difficult to follow. The author begins here in verse 21, For you have not come to the mountain. And we're like, what? What mountain? What's he talking about? You need to remember that this book was written to Jewish believers in the New Testament era. That's why we call the book Hebrews. The book was written to Hebrew Christians. Pressure was being put on these Messianic Jews. That's what we would call them today. Pressure was being put on these Messianic Jews to return to Judaism. And so when the author here mentions mountain, he's not talking about the Rockies, he's not talking about the Appalachians, he's not talking about the Himalayas. There's only one mountain as far as Jews are concerned, and that is Mount Sinai, where the nation of Israel was constituted, where the nation of Israel became a nation. Now these verses are very picturesque. They are intended to take us back to the experience of the Israelites at Mount Sinai that's described in Exodus chapter 19. The author wants us to see what the Israelites saw and hear what the Israelites heard and feel what the Israelites felt as Moses went up to the mountain to receive the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant. Now, I kind of smile. I think if the author here had had access to the kind of special effects that Hollywood has today, I have to wonder if he wouldn't have written these verses. He would have made a movie. He would have tried to literally take us back. so that we could experience what those Israelites experienced as they were waiting at the foot of Mount Sinai for Moses. There was storm, thunder, lightning, rain. There was fire and smoke at the top of the mountain. It must have looked a little bit like a volcano had been caused, but it wasn't a volcano. It was the Shekinah glory of God that had descended upon the top of Mount Sinai. And before all of this, before God told, before Moses went up to the mountain, God told Moses to consecrate the mountain, to sanctify the mountain. Those of you that are part of the congregation here normally, you know that that word sanctify means set it apart. In fact, what he told them to do was to put a boundary around the mountain. I think they set up a fence. Because God told them if somebody gets through that boundary, He and His holiness might break through and kill them like He killed Uzzah when Uzzah touched the Ark of the Covenant. You can imagine their response to that kind of talk. It says they trembled at these words. Even if an animal somehow got through that boundary, got through that fence by accident, the animal was to be put to death. On the day that God called the people of Israel to stand before Him at the foot of the mountain, they trembled in terror, according to Exodus 19. And verse 21 here tells us that it wasn't just the people of Israel that were terrified. Even Moses was terrified. I mean, I would have been terrified. God calls Moses and says, come on up here. And I'd have said, who, me? But there's a very important truth there in verse 21. Moses was the mediator of this covenant. And he was terrified of the God that he was going to see on the top of the mountain. Now this entire experience was designed to communicate how unapproachable God was. The old covenant What we often call the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, emphasizes the holiness of God. It emphasizes that God is set apart from us in every way. And in particular, God is set apart from us because of our sin. Everything in the Law of Moses was about God being set apart. The way that the tabernacle was constructed with the courtyard, and then the holy place, and then the Holy of Holies, and then the Ark of the Covenant was all about saying, I am set apart from you, sinner! And an Israelite could only approach God with a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice, for any type of sin. In huge letters, God said, I am holy and you are not. Now, it's against this dark, fearful backdrop that the author of Hebrews paints a completely different picture of the glories of the new covenant. The dark, stormy night of the Old Covenant breaks forth into a glorious dawn as we read verses 22 through 24 here. It's probable that these Jewish Christians were facing pressure, taunts, jibes from their relatives and their Jewish friends, shaming them for following a criminal who had died on a Roman cross. And I would spit that word because that's what they would do. They would have heard comments like this, look at what you have left behind so you can follow this Jesus. And the Apostle Paul himself lists the benefits of being a Jew in Romans chapter 9. These are Paul's words. To them, to the Jews, belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs. Seven benefits of being a Jew. And those Jews told those Christians, and you've left it all behind. And in verses 22 through 24, the author turns that talk track on its head. He pictures the darkness, the dread, the distance from God under the old covenant. And then he lists seven glories. I have to wonder if the author of Hebrews here didn't know what Paul had written in Romans chapter 9. Because he has seven glories of the new covenant. And I don't have time to go through those seven glories. Let me just start with one. I'll give you one. He begins that list by saying, you have come to Mount Zion. The Hebrew Christian, you and I as Christians, we've not come to Mount Sinai, we've come to Mount Zion. Now, Mount Zion was the highest elevation in the city of Jerusalem. And so is the author implying here we've come to Mount Zion? We've come to Jerusalem? Is he implying here that every believer gets an all-expense-paid trip to Jerusalem? Is that the idea here? I mean, I can just hear Joel Osteen now. Just come to Jesus! Get an all-expense-paid trip to Jerusalem! Is that what this is talking about? No, that's not the idea here. You see, the author goes on in verse 22 to say, you've come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem. The author is not talking about the earthly Jerusalem. Believers in Jesus Christ have a part in the heavenly Jerusalem now. Let me repeat that. Believers in Jesus Christ have a part in the heavenly Jerusalem now. You remember what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2? He says that because we are one with Christ as believers, Because we are in Christ, we are seated, enthroned with Jesus right now in heavenly places. That's a present reality, Paul tells us. The author here is saying something similar. He's saying right now, because we are one with Jesus Christ, we already have part in the heavenly Jerusalem, what we normally call the New Jerusalem. See, I've got title deed to some property in the New Jerusalem. Do you? Do you? If you know Jesus, you do. That's what He's saying. This is the first blessing. This is the first benefit. This is the first glory of the New Covenant. You're a believer in Jesus Christ. You've got a title deed to heaven. Not that Mount Sinai thing with the storm and the wind and the darkness and the threats. No, we've come to the heavenly Jerusalem. And it goes on like that. Seven benefits. Down to the seventh where we have a second contrast at the end of verse 24. The contrast between the blood of Christ and the blood of Abel. Do you see what it says there? It says, we have come to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. There's a second Christmas contrast here. These final two points have a connection to what we've been studying in the book of Genesis. That's why I'm at this text this morning. See, this is the off-ramp from Genesis 4 to Christmas, okay? We're coming down 385. We've come to the exit. We're exiting from Genesis chapter 4 into Christmastown, okay? This is the exit. I intend for the next couple of weeks to talk about the Christmas covenant. You know, much of what we sing about, much of what we sang about this morning, much of what we read from scripture this morning has to do with the fact that when Jesus was born, he was fulfilling covenant promises from the Old Testament. And that's what we're going to look at for the next couple of weeks. And that's what brings us to this verse, where we find a contrast between the blood of Christ and the blood of Abel. So let's turn back to Genesis 4 and read again what it says about the blood of Abel. Genesis 4, verses 8 through 10. Now Cain talked with Abel his brother and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, where is your brother? He said, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? And God said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Abel's blood speaks. In fact, Abel's blood cries out. And what does Abel's blood say? Well, first of all, Abel's blood cried out for justice. It cried out for God to uphold his moral law. Remember, Abel was the first human being ever murdered. Now, we tend today in our culture to look at murder through very humanistic eyes. You know, you'll hear things like, you know, when somebody murders another person, they steal all the days that he could have had and all the wonderful experiences and joy that he could have known and his family could have known. And all that's true. But when God looks at murder, he looks at it in a completely different way. God looks at it as an attack on his image in man. I mean, think about a vandal somehow being able to break into the White House and slash a portrait of a president there. Now, that would be more than just destruction of property. That would be an attack upon that president and his administration and everything that he stands for. And God kind of looks at this in the same way. When you murder a human being, you are slashing my image, and God takes it personally. And that's why murder calls for capital punishment. See, we've got this all wrong today. In Genesis chapter 9, when God said that murder calls For man's judgment, he said, why? He said, for he is made in the image of God. And God says, I will not have my image treated that way. So Abel's blood called out for justice. In the second place, Abel's blood cried out for vengeance. Abel was the first martyr in the godly line of the faithful. Thousands in that godly line have been done to death by those who walk in the way of Cain since that day. And it's still happening around the world today. As we've been studying this first book of Genesis on Sundays, we've also been studying the last book of the Bible, Revelation, on Wednesdays. And there we see a picture of the martyrs from the tribulation period crying out for their blood to be avenged. Here's what Revelation 6, 9, and 10 say. This is John speaking. I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which they held, and they cried with a loud voice saying, How long, O God, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Abel's blood cried out for vengeance as the first martyr. And then finally, Abel's blood cried out for judgment. Read on here in Genesis chapter 4, verse 11. God pronounces sentence, renders judgment. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth. Cain was the first human being that God cursed directly. He cursed the serpent. He cursed the ground for Adam's sake. But this is the first time that God says to a human being, you are cursed. Wow. And the curse was quite fitting. And we talked about this last Sunday. I believe Cain buried Abel, buried him in the ground. And God said, because you buried him in the ground, the ground is no longer going to yield to you. And in my imagination, my sanctified imagination, I see Cain's fruit trees withering. I see blight coming up from the ground into his crops. God could have executed the death penalty, but I kind of think that he did. Someone said that a life sentence is actually a death sentence, and I think that's exactly what Cain got. He got a life sentence as a fugitive and a vagabond. Those are pretty good words, huh? For describing the life that Cain lived until he died. Think of what it would be to live on earth and not have the earth yield any food to you. There were no Walmarts back then, no Targets. A living death. Now, if you put all of that together that I just talked about, judgment, curse, This is what the Old Covenant was about. The Old Covenant was about law and justice and judgment. But look at the last half of verse 24 back in Hebrews 12. You don't need to turn. I'll read it to you. Here's the contrast. It says that the blood of sprinkling speaks better things than the blood of Abel. And that blood of sprinkling is a reference to the blood that Jesus Christ shed for us, bearing our sins. So what does the blood of Christ say? Christ's blood, first of all, cries out for forgiveness. As Christ was bleeding out on the cross, He cried out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? But He also cried out, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. In Ephesians 1, we read, in Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9 says that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And so it is the blood of Christ alone, as opposed to the animal sacrifices of the old covenant, that wins eternal salvation. You and I are sinners in the eyes of God, and if we die bearing our own sins, unforgiven, those sins will carry us to an eternal hell. But Jesus Christ died to bear those sins, the once and for all blood sacrifice. In the second place, Christ's blood cries out for justice. Now this is kind of odd. Abel's blood cried out for justice. Christ's blood cries out for justice. How can that be? Well, Christ died as my substitute and your substitute to bear all of the righteous wrath of God on my sin and your sin. Now, God is a holy God. He must punish sin or He will no longer be God. He'll no longer be holy. But at the cross, all of God's righteous wrath was poured out on Jesus when he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He was enduring hell for you and for me. He drank the cup of God's wrath dry as he hung on that cross. And so because of that, God can forgive and yet remain just. God can forgive and yet do justice. This is what Paul says in Romans 3.26. Christ died in our place to demonstrate at the present time God's righteousness, that God might be just and yet the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Because of Jesus' shed blood, God can forgive our sin and yet remain just and righteous. And then in the third place, if Abel's blood cries out for judgment based on the law, based on the old covenant, then Christ's blood cries out for grace and mercy, which are at the heart of the new covenant. As I said, in the next couple of weeks, we're going to talk about how the new covenant is the Christmas covenant. How so many of the passages that we read this morning are fulfillments of those covenant promises. Jesus was born for this very purpose, to establish the new covenant, the covenant of grace instead of law. Got a Christmas card this week from my niece, from her husband. And the front of the card simply said, when you realize who he is, you will understand why he came. I hope you understand now who he is and why he came. Jesus came to establish a relationship between you and God that you can't establish on your own. We call it a covenant relationship. I can't dive into what that means. I will next Sunday. But that covenant relationship is a relationship of promise where God makes astounding promises the promises that I didn't have time to cover just a few minutes ago. Do you have a covenant relationship with God? It only comes through Jesus Christ and his once for all sacrifice on the cross. Is Jesus your substitute? Is Jesus your Savior? Is Jesus your Lord? It is only through Him that you can have this relationship with Jesus Christ. Could I ask you to just bow your heads for just a moment? If you're uncertain where you stand, with God the Judge of all, that's what this passage calls Him, you can know for certain that you have a title deed in the new Jerusalem, in the heavenly Jerusalem. Your sins can be forgiven. You can have this covenant relationship with God. Have you embraced Jesus? Is he yours? Can you say, yes, he's mine. He's my savior. He's my Lord. I've embraced him, he's mine, and I belong to him. This is God's greatest gift, this relationship. Is it yours? If not, then I ask you right now to turn to Jesus in your heart and just say, Jesus, I want you. I want you to be my Savior. I want you to be my Lord. I believe you died in my place to bear my sin and all the punishment my sin deserves. And Lord Jesus, I'm yours. I put myself in your hands. Oh, I think there's someone here. You're resisting. Come to Jesus.