Let's take our Bibles and open it to the book of Hebrews chapter 12. I have purposed in my mind and heart tonight to address this sixth warning and make that the final one, but there is a temptation in me to address Hebrews chapter four concerning the effectual nature of the word of God. However, beloved, maybe I can touch on a little bit of that tonight. Let's stand together. As I read verse 25 through verse 29, hear the word of the living God. See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven. And his voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven. This expression, yet once more, denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service and reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. And thus ends the reading of God's word. Please be seated. You have certainly heard a lot about the book of Hebrews over the last several weeks. I don't think it's redundant to remind you of the purpose of the book. The book was written in order to incite and provoke true Christians. And I add the word true in there to point out this fact, beloved, that the Word of God savingly is for His people, for His elect, Savingly, the Word of God goes out and has a saving effect upon those whom God has elected in His Son. These words have no saving effect upon any who do not own Christ, nor Christ owns them. It doesn't have a saving effect upon them. It may have some effect It may have, any effect it may have that looks saving will be momentary. It's like the book of Matthew in the parable of the sower. The seed of the word of God goes out and it does affect people differently. Some people could care less. Oh, that's just a bunch of hocus pocus, bunch of preachers begging for money. Who cares what the church says anyway? Word has no effect. Hard hearts. Then there are those that the word goes out and, well, it has this effect, but it's so shallow of an effect, it is just so momentary that it's for a very short period of time. But then there are those that even look like for a time, they look like genuine Christians. They rejoice, they sing, they pray, and they have a season of what looks like, from our perspective, conversion, spirituality. deep convictions, tears of joy and tears of sanctification and even witnessing for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what happens to that seed? Well, the parable goes on to say that the cares of the world choke it out. That over time, the cares and the concerns of this world end up taking over. Well, in much the same way, the believers of the book of Hebrews were being affected by their surroundings. They were being affected by their hostile culture, the hostile culture that they lived in, and they had regressed. They were in need of a letter that was going to provoke them to become active again. These warnings are for Christians. These warnings are for the Christian who will genuinely shudder by faith, who will genuinely by faith look into the mirror of God's Word and say, is this me, oh Lord? Is this me? Could this be speaking of me? Have I become this wretched? Have I become, oh Lord, this insensitive? You see, we don't have much, there's not many Christians who even think that's needed today. But I can tell you, particularly young people, young people, the older people have learned it the hard way, in some degree, to look in the Word of God and go, oh, woe is me. We have the seasons and experiences where the Lord has had to teach us many difficult things about ourselves, right? But you young people, You're tempted to think, that'll never happen to me. That'll never be said of me. Don't ever worry about me. I'll never be like them. I'm here to tell you, young person, you're ripe for the picking. You're ripe for the picking. Your heart has already demonstrated its hardness because of that statement. You become ripe for the Lord to do a very chastening and chastening work like we read last week in the first part of Hebrews chapter 12. This letter is designed to provoke us, to incite us. Maybe we need encouragement. The letter certainly does that. You can find encouragement in these warnings if you look by faith. You can find encouragement in these warnings by understanding that in each and every warning, there's a promise. There's a promise that if you persevere, that if you remain steadfast, the Lord is your God, that you are the objects of His mercy and that you can be strong in Him. He is your anchor. He is your motivation, your strength, your encouragement. Maybe we need encouragement tonight. Maybe we're weak. Maybe we've been buffeted so much that we're weakened by this culture we live in, this very immoral antichrist culture. I mean, so much. One of the things that I appreciate about the apologetics video is the point that he makes. about are you correctly apologizing for God, defending God, or are you defending the wrong God? You could even change it around. I've been thinking about it. Change it around. How can you serve the true God if you don't know Him? And how can you know Him if you're not feasting upon Him and His Word? You know, are we serving the true God? Are we serving false gods? How do we know if we're not going to God's Word? How do we know if we're not spending time in God's Word? How do we know if we're not, like we learned in our Sunday school class this morning, feasting on sound doctrine? How do we know? We can't. It's impossible to know if we don't have exposited and explained and set before us sound doctrine. And yet, beloved, that's exactly what the book of Hebrews does. It does what? From the beginning of the end, what does it do? It expounds the personal work of Jesus Christ, a sound Christology. And it demonstrates that this view and work of the Lord Jesus Christ is what every believer needs, to be encouraged, to be incited, to be motivated to come out of their backslidden condition, to find strength even when there's weariness, Beloved, it's about this person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's about His work, what He is doing, and we are called to be strong of faith. We're called upon because we have this Savior to be strong in our faith, not because we're strong. Yet we are called upon because we have this Savior and we have this kingdom to be strong in this world, to be strong in His graces. Many people, commentators, write in the book of Hebrews, they say that these warnings aren't for Christians at all. It's sort of like the writer Paul was addressing two different types of people in the church. He had a word for the Christian and then he had a word for the unbeliever, but that's not the case because every time we read these, how many times, even in this one, were the apostle Paul, but we should not refuse him who is speaking. See to it that you don't. He tells us in verse 25. He says, if they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven. I mean, the apostle Paul includes himself in this warning. We need to understand that these warnings are for us, they're for the church, they're for the Christian. There to remind us, beloved, that there have been saints in the past, glorious, faithful saints in the past that have needed these warnings. I mean, think about Abraham. Abraham, faithful, father of all the believing, yet he did not believe in the promises of the seed and took a concubine and had a son through his concubine. all because he doubted the promises of God. Because he didn't think God could open the womb of his old wife and grant her a son. And yet we see Abraham on the strong side of things, right? In Genesis 22, he takes his son up to the mountaintop. What a great act of faith that was. But you see, beloved, mighty and strong men do waver at times, and they need encouragement. You need these words to incite you, to provoke you, and to move you along so that you don't become stuck. inactive, passive, paralyzed, so that you don't look around in your community, in your society, and you think, oh my, that group is way too strong for the Word of God. Oh, this group is much too strong for the Kingdom of God. Oh wow, the church has nothing that competes with this organization. Beloved, we must begin to understand, and we will see from this warning tonight, that there is nothing that can stand in the way of God bringing salvation to the earth. Nothing. Nothing. And if we refuse to act upon faith, we won't receive those blessings of obedience. Nor will we see those rewards given in faith, beloved, but we'll be tossed to the side. will be moved to the side and then it will be given over, that gracious work will be given over to another church that will do these things, keep these promises, preach this gospel, who will believe and trust and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. What are some of these warnings? Let me remind you of them. Drifting. Drifting. Carelessness. Having such a precious gospel. yet not treating it like it's precious, not appreciating it. I think we can all see where we fall short in that one. We don't see it as that important. It's important, but it's not the most important thing. We wouldn't never, I'll never say it's not important. And yet we don't treat it as if it's the most important thing in our lives. Pardoning, refusing to do what God says because our hearts are really longing for something else, and that longing is evidenced in our complaining on God's grace. Why did you take us out into the wilderness to kill us? We had all we wanted in Egypt. Why, God? Why? Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? I thought you cared for us. Why did you bring us out in the desert? See, their hearts were longing for other things and they demonstrated their hardness to obey God by complaining against His grace, dullness. So many people are so active in the pursuit of truth and pursuit of doctrine But never apply it. Never apply it. You know, beloved, ask yourselves, are you utilizing what you've learned over the past month? Are you utilizing what you've learned over the past year? Have you begun to put into practice those things or have you become stagnant, dull, Your inactivity has made it hard for you to discern between right and wrong, that which is right and almost right. Beloved, we looked at that deliberate high-handed sin, understanding that if we are deliberately sinning against God's grace, there's no sacrifice for us. Scary, isn't it? bitterness. That's a word we can all, I'm sure, at least familiar with because we've all flirted with it at times. We've all entertained that bitterness at times. And we need to understand that if we don't discipline ourselves and we don't watch over ourselves and we don't have people watching over us, if we're not careful, that bitterness will spring up and it will defile many people. And beloved, now we come to this last warning, and this warning is very similar to all the rest. In fact, some commentators even believe that it's a summation of some of the other warnings put together, that it's sort of the capstone of all these warnings, but yet it is still worthy of our interest here tonight because it does address apostasy. Look at the context with me. Look at verse 18. Notice the contrast that Paul gives to the church. He gives this contrast to the church in order to help them come to a better estate in their salvation. Verse 18 he says, For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire into darkness and gloom and whirlwind into the blast of a trumpet in 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. Now before I read the contrast there, notice what he's saying. He's saying, you in the new covenant, you did not hear the fearful words of God. You did not see God's servant Moses shuddering before the thunderings of Mount Sinai. Now, who was Moses? Moses was the mediator. Moses was the one who had gone up and received the law of God. He was God's friend. Hear the people, they hear God, the thundering, the lightning, the fearful sound, the earth shaking, and they said, Moses, we don't want God to speak to us anymore. You go, let God talk to you. We can't take God speaking to us. And here's Moses revealing in the inspired word of God. This isn't explained in the Decalogue, but it's explained here that Moses was exceedingly fearful to go into the presence of God. Notice what he says. He says, for you have not come in verse 18 verse 22, but you have come. Notice this string of labels, titles given to the church. Notice, he says, but you have come, present tense, you've come now to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to mirrors 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. I mean, it would be glorious to take each one of these, Mount Zion, the mountain, the holy city of God that David went and captured for God's glory. What was Mount Zion? What was this holy mountain? What was this heavenly city? Well, that was the place in the Old Testament where God said, it's mine. This is where I will make myself. Now I want you to think about this. That place in the Old Testament was the only place that God made himself savingly known. This is my place. This is my moment. But what does He say? He says, you've come to a heavenly city. You've come to a new Mount Zion, not the old Mount Zion that quaked in the thunder and the lightning and the black clouds. You've come to this spiritual mountain, to this city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Think about Revelation 21. Notice the parallels here. To the myriads of angels. to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. You've come into this membership. You don't have the old covenant church. You've got the new covenant church with all of its spiritual and rich blessings. You've come to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. Notice, you've come to God, the judge of all. Remember, in the old covenant, they said, oh, we don't want to hear God speak to us. Now, because of Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, and because His blood speaks better than the blood of Abel, we can come now into the comfortable presence of God who is Judge and be saved. That's the contrast He's given us here, that Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel. You know, blood of Abel cried out for what? Vengeance. Vengeance, justice. Jesus' blood cries out forgiveness. Forgiveness. The cleansing of sin. Beloved, he's encouraging them and he'll say, oh, you don't understand what a better covenant you have. You don't understand what a better mediator you have. You don't have that old mountain with its thunder and its lightnings and the great fear. You have this new spiritual mountain, the church. Remember, the church is called Mount Zion. The church is called the city of the living God. The church is called the heavenly Jerusalem. What do we see in the book of Revelation? We see the myriads of angels doing what? Serving and praising God for His grace and mercy to the church. Verse 23, the general assembly of the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. We talked about the books that are going to be opened on Judgment Day. God knows who belongs to Him. Now, beloved, let's look at this warning and we need to ask ourselves this question. We need to ask ourselves, what does this require of me? That's why this warning is here. You don't have the old covenant, you've got the blessings of the new covenant, the richness of the new covenant, the spirituality, all that comes in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what's required of you? Verse 25. Notice. this imperative sense. See that you do not refuse him who speaks. It's interesting because, beloved, we are to always be making sure in these verb tenses that we don't let ourselves refuse him who is always speaking to us. We are to see to it that we do not allow ourselves to refuse him. It is a work that we must do ourselves. We must make sure that we put ourselves in the best position to hear and to receive and to act upon whatever God asks of us. Whatever His Word shows us, demonstrate, commands of us, we need to make sure we put ourselves in the best position to hear it, receive it, and then to act upon it. You know, have you ever noticed, have you caught so far that every one of these warnings address God speaking? Every one of them. Every one of these warnings are addressing you obeying what God tells you to obey. You doing what God tells you to do over against what you think you should do. This is a command. This is the imperative. This is what we are to see that we don't do. We are to make sure we do not refuse him. Then he gives us the example, as he's done several times in the book. Notice what he says. He says, for if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven. He says, do you not know you have a more sure word, a better word, heavenly word? If they did not escape the thunderings and the lightnings on Mount Sinai on earth, how will we escape the voice from heaven? How will we escape so great a mediator? How? And we know it's an impossibility to escape because they didn't escape in the Old Testament, did they? They wandered around for 40 years and died out in the desert. Go back and read. This would be a time to cross-reference Hebrews 3. That's what he's doing. He's going back. He says, you remember this rebellious people because they refused the Lord. Notice there's an allusion to Isaiah 13 verse 13. Notice what he goes on to say. He says, And yes, in his voice shook the earth. And now he is promising yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. Turn with me to Isaiah. I want to read to you this passage of scripture. I think it helps us understand a little bit because I believe it's addressing this Rebellion, why, what, what's the purpose of the shaking of the earth? What's to cause sinners to fear him? Isaiah 13. Verse 13, therefore I will make the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken from its place, that the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of his burning anger, and it will be that like a hunted gazelle or like sheep with none to gather them, they will each turn to his own people and each one will flee to his own land. Anyone who has found will be thrust through, and anyone who is captured will fall by the sword. His little ones also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be plundered, and their wives ravished." The Lord is saying that He is very serious about His commandments. He is very serious about His revelation. When He reveals Himself, He is the expectation and obligation and duty for His creation as to what yield, submit, and humble themselves under His hand. When the Lord speaks, it causes a shaking in the earth. He goes on to say, though, that when Jesus speaks, it not only shakes the earth, but He will also shake the heaven as well. In verse 27, this expression yet once more denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of the created things, so that those which cannot be shaken may remain. What do we see here, beloved? Well, we see several motivations for us to not refuse him. First of all, we see the motivation that we can't escape him. There's no way that you and I can disobey God and get away with it. No way. It's impossible to reject and to refuse God and yet not suffer the consequences. You know, it does seem that the Lord wouldn't have to tell us this, would he? We could go on to better things. I mean, we know this. We know we can't escape God, but yet we become so dull and careless in our theology, in our lives. We become so hardened to spiritual things and so sensitive to the world. You know, it's interesting. We'll defend the dumbest ideas and yet unable to defend the gospel. That's offensive to God, that we cannot defend that which should be the most precious to each family here tonight. that we have not taken the time to labor and to diligently strive to understand, at least to some degree, how to explain and defend and exhort and promote the precious gospel of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, it's a motivation for us to realize that we cannot escape Him who speaks from heaven because His voice shakes both heaven and earth. He is renewing those things. He's removing those things that are shakable. Turn with me to Matthew 15. What are those shakable things? I mentioned it this morning. Perfectly correlates with our message this morning, but chapter 15 of the book of Matthew, notice verse 12, 13 and 14. And then the disciples came and said to Jesus, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement? But Jesus answered and said, every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind, and if the blind man guides the blind man, both shall fall into the pit. What is Jesus teaching his disciples? He is saying, all of these man-made traditions and laws, my Father's going to pluck them up and throw them away. Shakeable. Everything that man builds, shakable. Every philosophy that man comes up with, Epicureanism, Stoicism, Hedonism, whatever the case may be, plucked up, shakable. The only thing that remains, Hebrews 12 teaches us, is the kingdom of God. That's a motivation for us to be what? Sold out to the kingdom of God. You want to be on the winning team? Everybody likes being number one. I mean, even the college team that's ranked 100th holds up the number one finger, right? How does that work? Because we all have this thing about being, well, number one. And yet here's God telling us that the only thing that's unshakable, the only thing that's eternal, the only thing that is going to last in this world is the kingdom of God in Christ Jesus is a motivation for us to put away shakable things. And I don't know what's shakable in your life, but I can tell you this, it needs to be put away. in order to obey verse 25, see to it that you do not refuse him. That is the verb again, see to it that you make yourself available to obey him. Don't crowd your life with a bunch of shakable things so that when you hear his voice, when you receive that command, you're unable to respond to what God's called you to do. Because it's disobedience if you don't. It's disobedience if you don't. Think about Matthew 7 verses 24 through 29 when Jesus says, any man who refuses to obey my words is like a man that builds his house upon the sand. A man must build his house upon the rock, which is the obeying of Jesus' commands. He says he's like the man that builds his house upon the unshakable rock. Another motivation, beloved, is that we are receiving this kingdom. Not only we cannot escape this kingdom, This kingdom is eternal. This kingdom is unshakable. But notice what he says. He says in verse 28 that we are receiving this kingdom. This is the present tense participle. This is something that is taking place all the time since the reign and the installation and the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are receiving an unshakable kingdom. Christ's kingdom stands and will continue to stand and endure its permanent. There is nothing going to, there is nothing, there is no legislation, there is no political party, there is no atheist group, there is no country, there is no rally, there is nothing that is going to stop the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Nothing. Not communism. Not anything that you can think of, fascism, socialism, whatever the case may be, that's not going to shake the Kingdom of God. In time, the Kingdom of God will pound, shake, obliterate those kingdoms. We need to understand this, what he said in Hebrews 1. Talked about the eternal nature of the Son of God and how the heavens and the earth will roll up like a scroll, but Jesus remains the same. Jesus never changes. You know what that means? It doesn't matter if it's the 21st century or the 1st century, the 21st century or Starship Enterprise. These things are true and so and will never ever change. They remain fixed forever. That's what makes it so generational. The things you teach your children right now in these catechism questions and in these doctrines are the things that your great-great-great-great-grandchildren will need to know. need to know. And what do we learn in our Sunday school class? How can we pass down generational wisdom if we're not a wise people? If we're not learning wisdom, if we're not growing in grace, if we're not becoming and understanding people, if we're not walking with the Lord Jesus as a young person, how are you going to hand this down to your children? Are you going to wait until the last minute? You know, some of us had come to faith late in life, already had children, and by God's grace, He's restored some of those things. But you know what? While you're in this church, you need to understand your goal right now as a young person is to get wisdom. Get understanding. Acquire wisdom. Acquire understanding. Fill your minds and your heart with so much of the Lord Jesus. When you get to those hard times, what comes out? Jesus. When you're pressed in a trial, Christ comes out. When you're pressed in a marriage situation, Christ comes out. When you're pressed with your children, Christ comes out. That's what you want. But you can't do that if you don't have your hearts full of Jesus. You fill it with the world, what's going to come out? The world. You fill it with all this other garbage, all this other shakable stuff, what's going to come out? All this shakable stuff. The warning here, beloved, is that we make ourselves available to the God who is speaking. That's the word. We make ourselves available to hear God speaking and not refuse Him. There's another motivation here. Look at verse 29. For our God is a consuming fire. Now, that's not out of the Old Testament, is it? I mean, that's right here in the New Testament. That's a motivation for us. Knowing that God is a consuming fire is a motivation for us because this is ever-present. His consuming nature is ever-present. He is always consuming those who refuse Him consistently. Jesus said it. He said, the wrath of my Father abides upon all who disbelieve. You see, beloved, If you, today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts. Don't presume upon God's grace, because you don't have tomorrow. You may not have next week. You may not have any of these other opportunities. Maybe tonight, hey, maybe tonight, you are as sensitive to sin you're ever going to be. Maybe tonight, you are as sensitive to the voice of the Lord as you're ever going to be. What are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with it? You have an opportunity right now to not refuse Him. God is a consuming fire. And only those, the Bible teaches, beloved, only those who can stand before Him are those who are cloaked and robed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I want to turn to one passage of Scripture. Other than Psalm 1, I'm just going to think about Psalm 15. Psalm 15. O Lord, who may abide in your tent, who may dwell on your holy hill. Now, you've got to understand something. He's speaking in no covenant terminology, but to abide in the Lord's tent and to dwell on the holy hill of God is to be in His presence. It's to be in His presence. Who, let's just take verse one, who can abide in your presence? Verse two, he who walks with the integrity and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart. He has a heart that's been sanctified. is a heart that's been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not slander with his tongue, nor does he do evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend, and whose eyes are reprobated, despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord, who swears to his own hurt and does not change. He does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent, He who does these things will never be shaken. motivations to not refuse him, but I think the emphasis, what's the grace here? What are we to put ourselves to? How do we make ourselves ready? How do we make ourselves, how do we prepare ourselves to not refuse him, to hear him, and to always be ready? I have one point tonight in application. One point. That one point is found in verse 28. Look there with me. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us demonstrate gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence Now brothers and sisters, what you should already be struck with is the power of a thankful heart. The power of the grace of gratitude. The power of understanding from your heart that you stand in thankfulness to God for everything. Now let's think about this. They were living in hostile times. Lord, I thank you for where you have put me because even though the days are dark around me and there is much antichrist everywhere I look, you have given me the privilege of being a light in a dark place. Gratitude. Gratitude. Whether it be Whatever the case may be, I could even start with the family, right? I could start in our marriages, gratitude. How many times, beloved, we exasperate our spouse by not being thankful and we pick out the smallest, insignificant things to complain about? Parents even do it to children. Children do it to parents. We lack gratitude. So much can be healed, so much can be done, beloved, if we would be strong in the grace of thanksgiving, the grace of gratitude, just being thankful. You know, we can look around and say, oh wow, I wish that brother was this way because I need him to be this way. this sister that way because I need her to be that way. Oh, I wish this family was like this because, well, that's what I need. Instead of really looking around and understanding, God's at work. God is working in my brothers and sisters, weak and strong, and I am thankful, I am grateful that I am here, Lord, in their midst and I give to you a heart willing to receive whatever it is because I stand grateful. What should we be grateful for? I mean, we can think of many things, but I want to think about the context of the letter. Well, first of all, we ought to be thankful that we don't have Mount Zion of the Old Testament. We should be thankful that we don't have the thunderings and the lightnings and the commandment to stay a thousand yards back from the mountain, and if you cross the line, I'll strike you dead. We don't have to go to Jerusalem to worship God. We can worship God in the spirit of truth right here in Macon, Georgia. Are you thankful for that? What about the thankfulness of this permanent kingdom? You don't have to worry about who's going to be the next president. You don't have to worry about the church of the living God. Guess what? The church of the living God rests upon the person and work of Christ. To do away with the church would be to do away with Christ, and he's permanent. He's permanent. Brothers and sisters, I'm telling you, the church isn't going anywhere. And I think, Chuck, we've listened to atheists too long. We've allowed them to persuade us that they're okay, we're okay, whatever the case may be, but we need to begin taking the truth of God's word to them and demonstrating, let all men be a liar, let God be true. The permanence of this kingdom Secondly, or thirdly, we must be thankful for that God is a consuming fire. We must be thankful. Why? Because there are enemies. The church has enemies. And beloved, I'm sure when Nero perished by his own hand, it was a day of rejoicing for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm sure when Nazi Germany failed, and all the ramifications of that, and Hitler committed suicide, it was a day of celebration for those Christians who were being persecuted and killed by that regime. We must be thankful that our God isn't consuming fire, because we do have enemies. There are enemies to the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Lord will be victorious. We ought to be thankful that he's a consuming fire, beloved, because we need that hand upon us sometimes to say, wake up, do what I've told you to do. I've whispered sweetly in your ear for months now, and you've refused me. Now, I'll get your attention. We need our Lord working in our lives strongly at times in order to help us move along. There are several other things we could say here. Beloved, what about these things? Having and fostering and cultivating a biblical view of the Lord Jesus so that we can be thankful for Him. You think about that. What do you know about Jesus? Well, I know He died on the cross. That's a good one. Do you know what the Old Testament says about Jesus? Have you ever thought to, you know, get a book and say, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to look up every Old Testament prophecy concerning Jesus Christ. And I want to read these Old Testament promises and prophecies so that it'll help me appreciate the coming of the Lord Jesus. So that I can at least begin to understand it to some degree. Beloved, how many times have we ever really dedicated to ourselves to a study of the Bible of the person of Jesus Christ where we could say, you know what? I'm going to increase my gratitude for Jesus. But I can tell you right now, if you're here tonight and you say, oh yeah, I can increase my gratitude with Jesus by not looking at the Bible, you can't. You can't. You've got to feast upon the revelation of God's Word. You've got to go to the source. Fostering and cultivating a biblical view of the work of the Lord Jesus like we did this morning. I mean, beloved, we just skipped stones this morning, didn't we? I hope that you leave here today thinking, I did not realize the comprehensive nature of the coming of the Lord Jesus. I gotta think about that, I gotta meditate upon it. Fostering and cultivating a biblical view of God's word, understanding its power and its efficacy. that it's what is shaking the kingdoms. Hebrews chapter 1 says that the Lord Jesus sits enthroned on heaven with the scepter of righteousness coming from his mouth whereby he will dash the nations to pieces. You know what the scepter of the righteousness coming out of the mouth of Jesus is? The Word of God. It's the Word of God. Beloved, we have in our hands the message that changes the world and brings down nations, right? The Lord is not pleased to use armies, tanks, missiles, and satellites. He's using the written word of God that we're holding in our laps. Foster and cultivate a biblical view of history. understand that history is not just simply the movement of men, it's the movement of men in relationship to their love and hatred of God. That's it. Kingdoms rising and falling because of the sovereign will of God. Francis Nigel Lee said this, I've quoted it, talked to you several men about it, because of the idea that so many Christians today that believe that since Jesus Christ has come into the world, the world is getting worse and worse. And that has brought, that has paralyzed the church in our day and time. It's paralyzed the church. It's rendered the church inactive. It's rendered the church passive and it's paralyzed the church of taking the gospel to all the nations. Not just in a way to get them saved before the end of the world, but in a way that this glorious King sits and the waters of life flow from Him and He offers them freely. Come and repent and be saved by this King. Francis Nigel Lee said this, he said, if the world is getting worse and worse since Jesus came into it, it's a shame Jesus ever came. That's true. If the world has just gotten worse since Jesus come into it, why did he come? But that's not true. Because since Jesus has come into the world, beloved, we need more works, we need more books, we need more studies done on the comprehensive study of nations since Jesus Christ has come into the world. We can all see the advancement of medicine. We are living longer than they used to live 200 years ago. by God's grace. We don't assume it in our own strength. And secondly, having foster and cultivate a biblical view of the church. Notice the motivation, beloved, that he gives us up in verse 22, but you've come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the myriads of angels, the general assembly, and the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, 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 in my studies, I'll tell you, there are various segments of the book of Hebrews where the author, where Paul, whether he penned it or not is irrelevant. I believe Paul did author the book. It's eloquent Greek. And there is a rhyme and a beauty to the language. And you can see in these certain segments, he just goes on this trail of this beauty of the church. You know what he's trying to do? He's trying to inspire you to have this view of the church. Cultivate, beloved, a biblical view of the church of Jesus Christ. Love her. Love her because of Christ. Love her because Christ loves her. Love her because Christ died for her. Love her because Christ lives for her. What did I do? What did we read, beloved, in Ephesians and Paul's prayer? Turn there with me and this will close our evening. Don't separate Christ from His church. Paul goes on to say in verse 18, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of His calling. What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. He has put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Beloved, the only way that we can make sure we don't refuse him who speaks when he speaks is cultivating a heart of gratitude. heart of Thanksgiving, and beloved I submit to you, you should not have to look far to find something to be thankful for and to begin to cultivate that thanksgiving. Do not underestimate tonight the power of gratitude. Don't underestimate that grace in your life and your growth as a Christian. Let's pray. Father, we are thankful. We are thankful that you care for us. And we ask that you would expand our hearts for more gratitude, for more thankfulness. Lord, that we would be thankful for this kingdom, this unshakable kingdom, for the permanence of it. We would be thankful that you are speaking from heaven to us, that you desire to communicate to us, that you give us your word, a heavenly word. And Lord, that your commandments are not burdensome to us, but they are sweet to our palate. They are dear to our hearts and our hearts long to be expanded with your law, with your word. Oh Lord, give us a greater vision of Christ, a greater love for him, for his work in this earth. Lord, for one another, for this church, for what we have, for what you're doing here, for what you're doing among us individually as families and what you're doing together collectively as a body. Continue to raise the level of gratitude here. Lord, fill us up with it, that we might be always ready and prepared, but that grace to do what you've called us to do. Help us to be grateful in everything. No matter how difficult it is, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Beloved, let's stand for the benediction.