Hebrews chapter 12. I'm going to take this sermon a little different direction than we have the service so far, you've kind of sensed one direction. But there's definitely connections. And so I want to read our passage for us so that you can start thinking about some of those. This is Hebrews 12. We'll start in verse 18. We'll go to the end of the chapter. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear, and I was greatly terrified because of the wrath of your anger. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable angels and 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. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. For thus says the Lord Almighty, yet once I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. He gets that from Haggai. He says this phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. So I want to talk at the beginning of this sermon about something that you may not have even come into your mind as we're thinking about this passage, and it's the topic of eschatology. You can't really go very far in the Bible before you come to any passage on eschatology. Eschatology, what is this? Well, this is a word that gets people's attention in our day because it sells lots and lots of books. It fills church conferences. It gets tons of hits on YouTube if you have the kind that lends itself to wild futures and crazy charts and newspaper speculation. Growing up, the word eschatology meant something very different to me than it does now. In Christian circles that I grew up in, eschatology was the study of the end times. And the end times meant a pre-trib rapture seven years or at least three and a half years of horror for those who converted after the rapture. And it included lots and lots of date setting, which of course was always just a couple of years or months or even weeks or days away. We are the generation who is living in the end times. I can't tell you how many times I heard that. The fullness of all the prophecies is for us. Jesus is coming back before I die. And therefore, in these circles, eschatology is the study of our future. But there are several views on eschatology, not just the one that I grew up with. And I want to talk about a couple of those here. So the one I grew up with that I've just described is called classical dispensational premillennialism. This has a sharp division between Israel and the church. In every sense, it reads most, if not all, prophecy physically, as in referring to things that happen in space and time on the earth. And I want you to get that. If you don't get anything else from this, I'm going to keep coming back to this idea of the earth and something else. If it says seven years, it means 365 solar day years. If it says there will be a shaking of the earth and it's talking about a physical earthquake on the earth, this view sees all of history as a flat, one-dimensional line where everything takes place on the earth. This view sees the Old Testament as an age of law, a New Testament as an age of parenthesis of grace, It looks at a seven-year great tribulation in the future with national Israel, a thousand-year millennial reign of Christ in the city of Jerusalem, and a rebellion in Armageddon after that. All these things are on earth. There's a far opposite view, but it still presents history as a one-dimensional flat line. This is called postmillennialism. For the postmillennialist, history is all about gaining victory here and now through Christ on earth. And so life gradually gets better and better. There's less and less suffering as more and more people become Christians until virtually the whole world is saved and we enter the millennial reign of Christ on the earth. Now, many people, when they try to represent the other views of eschatology, incorrectly draw them as one-dimensional as well. But this is to badly mischaracterize those views. And there are two of them. They are historic premillennialism and realized millennialism, which is also called amillennialism. Now, these differ from one another on the nature of the millennium, but not on the nature of eschatology more generally speaking. These are the two views that have dominated church history for 2,000 years. When the Bible speaks about eschatology, it sees two dimensions, not just one. This is the most important thing that you can remember for the sermon today. If you don't understand what I'm talking about yet, you will in a couple of minutes, I promise. History in the future is not just about earth, it's also about heaven. There's an overlap between heaven and earth, such that heavenly things are real and true and present right now on the earth. For example, even though all saints on earth in mortal bodies now are here, The Bible says that we are at the same time seated in heavenly places. Now, how can that be? We're on earth, but it says we're in heaven. Well, that's what I'm talking about here. Even though we have eternal life in the future, we are granted eternal life now. Even though God will say, well done, good and faithful servant in heaven today, we are counted as righteous in Christ. Heaven is essentially coming down. It's intruding upon the earth. The kingdom of heaven is here now and it is within you, Jesus says. So the book of Hebrews starts with this view of eschatology, the second verse of the book. In these last days, God has spoken to us by his son. Now it doesn't say in times, it says last days. It doesn't have our future in mind only, but also our past. Living in the Old Testament, those last days were still future, but today they're not. Living 2,000 years after the cross like we do, the last days began a long time ago. They begin with Christ's first coming, not his second. And therefore, eschatology is not precisely the study of the future. It does include that, but it's the study of last things. Now what in the world bearing does any of that have to do with our passage? And my answer is almost everything. We begin with the mountains of God in our text today. Now, the Book of Jubilees rightly taught the ancient Jews from the Old Testament well in regard to this. It says, the Lord has four sacred places on the earth, the Garden Mountain of Eden and the Mountain of the East, which is probably Mount Ararat, and the mountain which you are upon today, Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. And it continues, Mount Zion will be sanctified in the new creation for the sanctification of the earth. On account of this, the earth will be sanctified from all sin and from pollution throughout eternal generations. So two of those mountains are in our passage. Now these are what I would call cosmic nexus points where heaven and earth touch like the fingers of God in Michelangelo's famous painting on the Sistine Chapel, just like biblical eschatology where heaven collides with earth. So the first is Mount Sinai. This is a mountain where God dwelt for a time. He came down to us, but he stayed at a distance. He came there to give the law. This law was put into place by the host of heaven and myriads and myriads were there, meaning that it was a symbol of heaven itself. Of the throne of heaven we read in Daniel, a stream of fire issued and came out from before him and thousands, thousands stood before him. The court sat in judgment and the books were opened. How that scene predicted this glorious moment when the son of man would approach the throne and be given the kingdoms of the world. This is what Psalm 2 predicted, which has been quoted by Hebrews of the first coming of the Lord Jesus. You are my son. Today, I begotten you asking me and I will make the nations your inheritance. So it's Psalm 110 predicted, which has been quoted time and time again in Hebrews. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. This is what Jesus said at the Great Commission. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. The point is, though his last enemy, death, has not been destroyed and there is a future to that defeat, his victory and his kingdom are present right now. Eschatology concerns now. Returning to Sinai, if the myriads are a picture of heaven and of eschatology, then so also is the mountain upon which God dwells. Because this is where the myriads show up. You read in the psalm, the Lord came from Sinai and he came from the ten thousands of holy ones with flaming fire at his right hand. The chariots of God are the myriads, thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them at Sinai in the sanctuary. So something earth-shattering happened at Mount Sinai. It was both earthly, because it was on the earth at the mountain, and it was heavenly, both physical and spiritual. But for them, it wasn't the last days. God gave the people his law. The mention of Sinai in Hebrews 12 at the beginning earlier before, right before what we've read here today, that idea, the origin of the law comes from Mount Sinai, but it's so much more than the giving of the law at Sinai. It is heaven itself intruding among men. God came to us. Think about how stunning this is, how glorious and how frightening it was. He came with the company of angels. He came, as it says, in a blazing fire, in darkness, in gloom, and a trumpet. He came with the sound of a trumpet and the voice whose words made the hearers beg that no more messages be spoken to them. It was an absolutely terrifying sight. The earth shook, the people froze. God was there in his Shekinah, his brilliant shining heavenly glory. They heard him speak and they melted in fright. That's Mount Sinai. That's how God came in the Old Testament. That was heaven coming down on a mountain. Heaven came down. But in the New Testament, in Christ Jesus, heaven comes down in a different way. He comes down in human flesh and this veils His glory. And so that He seemed as one of whom no one would give a second thought. He had nothing that we should chase after Him, nothing that we should desire Him. He was not shining. He was not tall. He was meek. He was humble. He was ordinary. God became man, the Word became flesh, and no one melted in fear at this coming, even though some did realize who He was. But what He did in this coming is how everything changes. What came down also went back up. He ascended into a heavenly temple and made an offering for our sins once for all. He opened up the way to the most holy place by His blood. He tore the veil in two, and now to those who believe in His name, He presents them before God not only on that day, but today. He raises us up and seats us with Him in heavenly places. In the old, God came down, heaven met earth. In the new, God who came down goes back up. Earth meets heaven through the nexus temple of Jesus Christ and his body on earth, which is the church. Now the contrast in the eschatology here is found between the fires of Mount Sinai and all its terrors and Mount Zion. Mount Zion does not singe the hairs on the back of the neck like Sinai does. Its image is of King David, and its city is the king's city. God came down on Mount Zion, but He dwelt in a temple, and only the priest could even enter that once a year. And so, when people thought of Zion, they didn't fear. Instead, they sang songs of joy about Zion. Psalm 137, sing us one of the songs of Zion, the people of Babylon taunt, because that's what they did. Shout and sing for joy. Oh, inhabitant of Zion. Sing aloud. Oh, daughter of Zion. God shielded himself from the people. And that caused them to rejoice in his presence instead of be terrified. But that Zion is still earthly Zion. We're still in the Old Testament. That Jerusalem is still earthly Jerusalem. And the contrast in Hebrews is not between one earthly place and another. It's between an earthly place, Mount Sinai, and the heavenly place. And this heavenly place is where we have come right now through Christ Jesus by faith. You have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You see, friends, when we worship, we worship in heaven and not just on earth. We are there right now. That is eschatology. It says we come to innumerable angels in festal gathering. Now this is another glimpse of heaven. The angels gather around the throne of God. They gather in worshipful celebration. As far as the eye can see, we're told, the host of heaven. And we have come to them now. That is eschatology. When you look at the old liturgies of the East, whether they're from Chrysostom or Basil or others, you find in those liturgies, both in word and in form, them depicting this very thing for the people. Those liturgies sing to the angels. They sing about the angels and with the angels about the Lord Jesus Christ. And they attempt to lead you in a procession into the presence of heaven through a journey into the most holy place by the priest using physical symbols that will hopefully stir you up so that you may know with your senses to where it is that you've come when you've come to worship. Now, the angelic liturgies are like the psalms. One psalm says, I give thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart. Before the gods I sing your praise. David is reaching up into divine counsel and he's telling the sons of God to worship the Lord. The Hebrew has Elohim. The Septuagint has angels there. In another psalm, praise him, all his angels. Praise him, all his hosts. And we sing it too. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above what? You heavenly host. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Now, people are being drawn back to these liturgies today for good and for bad reasons. The good reasons are that they know that there's something that transcends this earth to which they belong, and they just aren't getting it from pop culture Christianity. They're led with their eyes to see that which is true in spiritual places in these liturgies. But beloved, the eyes of faith don't see with physical eyes in order to believe. They need to be taught the truth from God's word and to apprehend that truth by faith, reaching up and taking hold of that truth with the heart. What is that truth? The truth is that God has given us access to heaven itself, where those angels are worshiping even now. And when we gather together as his church, it is that much more true. God gives us a privilege here in the text. He calls us the assembly of the firstborn. The firstborn is a son of God. Being his firstborn is the privilege that he gives us. The title was originally given to the angelic sons of God, and then it was given to Adam and to his descendants. And finally, it's given to Christians who recapture the seat that was lost by Adam on the council, but regained by the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the firstborn. to the firstborn belong to birthright, the inheritance of the father. Earlier in the chapter, Esau gave up that birthright because he sinned. But God has orchestrated history so that you might come to see that in his kingdom, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Jesus's kingdom is not a kingdom of physical birth privilege. It is a kingdom of election, of God's granting to last-borns the rights of first-borns, giving eunuchs and Gentiles the rights to become Levitical priests who can serve in the temple of God. The meek inherit the earth. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. God's program is completely backwards from man's, and that's why Christianity has always spread fastest among those who have the least. They hunger and thirst for something that God can give them. Their eyes are not on the shining jewels of the earth, and when he grants it to them, they are satisfied. The firstborn here in our passage is not one person, though. It doesn't refer to Jesus. It refers to the saints. The only one who's truly firstborn, Jesus, gives us that status when we believe in him and are united in a mystical union by faith. Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers. He's the eternal son of God, the unique, the only begotten of the Father. But he grants to those who conquer the right to sit on his throne with him. The firstborn is the assembly here. See that word assembly? That's the word ekklesia. That's the word church. And its people are those whose names are enrolled in heaven. This is where we left off last time when we saw that this church includes those who are now no longer visible on the earth because they have died. Hence the term invisible church. Now that idea simply conveys that God has won people throughout the Bible from Abel onward. Many of those people have passed into glory. Many of them are being called today. Some have not yet been called at all. Some haven't even been born, but their names are written in the book of life that belongs to the lamb who put them there in eternity past. This is the glory of election, which is such a comfort to the suffering soul. Now in this biblical eschatology, remember that you who truly trust in Christ are in this invisible church, even though you are visible. You are presently surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses in this chapter, and they lead you onward by their example, not to finally give in to temptation, but to reach the city to which you've already come. That's the already not yet. If you know Christ, you are in heaven positionally. You will be in heaven when your soul leaves your body and you're given a new one on the day of resurrection. And so this is all here to be a comfort and a power to help you overcome temptation in your life. It continues this eschatology. We've come to God, the judge of all. Can you see how that's eschatological? Most people realize that in the old Testament, God is a judge in the old Testament. Most people don't like this very much. Unbelief will not accept that it's even true. Otherwise it would certainly turn from its wickedness immediately. But God is, and God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He has never ceased being judge. We know that judgment belongs to the future. That's the second coming, but there is a judgment that has already come. Satan has been judged. Those who have been justified have been judged and freed from their terminal sentence. The Spirit is here judging men right now for all they do. This is the first coming, but both are eschatology. Who's the judge that's here though? Jesus says, the father judges no one but has given all judgment to the son. Why? Because he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. The Lord Jesus knows exactly what it means to live under law and to do it perfectly. As the new Adam, he has gained the highest seat possible for man and that is the seat of judge in heaven. And as his brothers, do you not know that we will judge angels, Paul says? Well, Jesus is the great judge of all men. Since all people are born under law, either directly through revelation or indirectly through a conscience, no one is going to escape the judgment of Christ. All will be repaid according to what they have done. Some will go to everlasting perdition where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Others will go to heavenly glory, but all will be judged. By what measure will you be judged? Will it be by the measure of your own merits? What you did in this life? Part of the judgment regards guilt against God's law and treason against heaven. All have fallen short here. Some will be judged on their own merit, and they will fall mightily into the fires of hell. Others who will believe the good news are judged by the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who offers to all his righteousness in exchange for the punishment that he endured on our behalf. What glory is this, that Jesus would judge anyone by his righteousness rather than theirs. The rest of the judgment will determine rewards, however that all works out. Now it's clear that not all in hell will have the same form of punishment, because it will be better on the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah than for Capernaum, because they rejected their Messiah. The same holds true in heaven, for some will have greater and some will have lesser rewards based on what they do. And yet those works, if they're done for self-glory, are the exact opposite reason of why they're supposed to be done, which is why when you receive rewards in heaven, you will return them back to their king and glorify him all the more. Because they are meek and the goal is to glorify God rather than themselves. Jesus alone knows how to judge others in perfect righteousness. And for this, we worship him. Now this is a good thing because if all have fallen short of his glory, then what hope is there? Well, some don't think the gospel that Jesus would save us and make us perfect by his merit through faith is even possible. Some have called it a great fiction. And yet the next phrase tells us that we have come to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. Now that refers to those who've gone before us into glory, to the great cloud of witnesses who are in heaven, to the invisible part of the universal church. They have been made perfect, perfect in Christ. But God has counted us as righteous in Christ by faith. It's different, but it's also the same. And that's eschatology. Heaven and the future come down now. We can mingle with the righteous perfect cloud now because in Christ we are counted as righteous In the biblical eschatology, it also says that we have come to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant Now the focus here is on the new covenant which Hebrews has spent half of the book explaining Now, out of all the references in the New Testament to the New Covenant, with that word new, this is the only verse that uses a different word for new. All the others use the word kainos, which seeks to make something better. So it's a better covenant. But this one uses the word naos, which refers to something that is indeed brand new, never seen before. Now, why in the world, when he's mentioned the New Covenant so many times, would he switch to this word right now? How is it here brand new? Well, I think it's because of the blood. The blood of this covenant is unlike the blood of any other covenant. Adam and Eve on Mount Eden were clothed in the animal which had to die and spill its blood. Noah sacrificed animals on Mount Ararat. Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac on Mount Moriah, but no blood was spilled. Moses sacrificed animals on Mount Sinai, which became the blood of the covenant. David and the priest slaughtered many animals on Mount Zion, but Jesus offered his own blood on the heavenly Mount Zion, which overlaps the earthly Mount Zion on which he died. That's the blood of a man and it's the blood of God. It's brand new. Hebrews uses yet another story to teach us how great the blood is. He goes to the first martyr as he brings our thoughts back to chapter 11 in the hall of faith. The blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. This verse is actually, it actually views Abel's death as a sacrifice. Have you ever thought about that? You think of it as a murder. God thinks of it as a sacrifice. It's a sacrifice of faith in the promise to come. Abel died as a martyr for Christ. Abel's blood still speaks loudly for the need of justice and vindication and peace on earth. Parents, when you teach your children the story of Abel, don't forget to teach them the story of Christ as well. Because that's what the Bible does here. Jesus' death cuts a new covenant by which we can be saved, and justice can be dispensed, and we can have peace with God. Jesus' blood is brand new and infinitely better than any in the Old Testament. Okay, so that's all this big list that we've looked at really for two weeks. And we've looked at Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. And now I want to ask, how in the world does any of this matter? Since I'm focusing on eschatology, let's consider how different eschatologies are often applied in our day. If we take dispensationalism as an example, what you discover is that the focus and therefore its application is on giving charts and setting dates and scaring people into heaven through fiction books and movies and making the blood pressure of most people rise on a permanent basis from the anxiety of the coming rapture. Tell me when Jesus is coming back. Tell me what's going to happen and when it's going to happen so I can go tell my friends. Post-millennialism is quite different in its application. It rightly sees Jesus' victories having great application here on earth already. Jesus has defeated Satan and his kingdom is intruding in the whole world. So if dispensationalism is utterly pessimistic about the future, postmillennialists are totally optimistic. And that causes them to become heavily involved in the world of political structures, oftentimes trying to re-implement God's law upon civilization. And in this case, the focus is often on trying to make the world a better place because that's what it means for the kingdom of God to be here. Now, I'm stereotyping a little bit here because I don't have time to get into this in lots of detail. And also, I don't want to suggest that we shouldn't be involved in the world or in politics or wanting to make the world a better place so that we shouldn't think about the future. What I'm pointing out is that if you want to look at the most immediate applications of these eschatologies, that's what comes to mind first. That is not how Hebrews applies its eschatology. even though what it says does focus on the present and also on the future. So it begins in verse 25. See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. So see to it that you do not refuse him. Refuse him in what way? and trusting in Christ, and in worshiping the Son, and in living by faith, and obeying what he commands. That's the things the whole letter's been telling you about. But the not refusing comes with a warning. To when does he refer when he says, God warned them from earth? The next verse tells you, at this time, his voice shook the earth. Now that refers back to, guess what? Mount Sinai, when they actually heard God's voice and the mountains shook. Now they didn't obey the Lord there, but they broke covenant with Him and they were forced to wander in the desert for 40 years. And this story has been in mind from the very beginning of the book of Hebrews until this very moment. But it says we are being warned from heaven. How so? What's through all that he has said, and this is the eschatology being applied right now. We have come to heavenly Jerusalem. We've come to angels in heaven. We've come to saints made perfect who are in heaven. We are seated in heavenly places. Most of all, we've come to Jesus who has ascended to heaven where he sits at the right hand of the father right now. I don't know how to get this across to us. Anymore than just telling you right now at this very moment Jesus is warning you from heaven to pay attention to him to listen carefully and to obey him But now why would we need such a warning is that? It's because you don't understand this with your physical senses Do you see Jesus with your eyes right now? Do you hear him with your ears? No Are you afraid right now in this room because a storm of doom has suddenly come upon this building, starting to shake your seats and rumbling the rafters and fires outside and earthquakes? No. Is Long's Peak on fire when you go look at it outside? No. See, throughout the centuries, people have tried to help Christians feel things in worship with their senses for just these reasons. Some of them are worthy attempts, I suppose. Others are completely misguided. And some are even dangerous to the eternal soul. And frankly, too many people are engaging in them at this moment in Christian America. But all of them do it because New Covenant worship is an ordinary thing as far as the senses go. It doesn't matter where you are. You can worship God. When God's people gather together, it's not the building that matters, not the ambiance, but the promise of God to lift them into heaven. But many people can't even believe this is true. Because if they can't sense it, then it isn't real. They're functional materialists, even though they claim to believe in a spiritual realm. And so they have to feel something. And if they don't, then it must be dead worship or dead liturgy. And hence the massive shifting of what worship looks like in evangelicalism over the past 40 years. But this is precisely why you must take this warning all the more seriously. It's not that God has left us. That's not why you don't sense anything. It's that in his grace, he has come to us in a way that no longer terrifies us. And He has allowed us to come to Him in a way that lifts us up without consuming us. Now, if He didn't do that, it would at best be like the people at Mount Sinai. But you go back to Mount Sinai and what did they do? They didn't listen to Him, even though all of their physical senses were going berserk. All they wanted to do was die and stop God from speaking to them. So what is he saying now? He's saying that even though the form of coming has changed, and the covenant made is better, he has not changed, and his program for the world is coming to completion. At that time, his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. That's a quote from the Septuagint, Haggai chapter 2. And the context of Haggai is important to understand so that you don't jump the gun on the meaning of what is being said here. But that's, again, eschatology speaking. Haggai is a book about the returning Jews coming to rebuild their temple. Now, curiously, it starts off with something similar to what I just said. God exhorts the people to rebuild and gives them sobering words of warning that their current state of affairs exist because of their apathy towards the project. They didn't want to rebuild the temple. So God then presents them with words of encouragement that speak of God shaking the world. The people are discouraged because the temple doesn't approach the former glory, but the Lord is with them and his spirit is among them. But the shaking of the earth is the shaking of the nations and the riches of the nations will be used to restore the temple to an even greater state than its former glory. And therefore, the original context of this is not bad news or scary news for God's people. It's actually good news. It's news of comfort and encouragement. Though you may not see it with your eyes, I will do a marvelous thing in your midst. I will rebuild my temple. Our thoughts go to the future. Our first thought should go to what has already happened with Christ. Most people, when they hear that God is going to shake all things, where do they want to go? They want to go to Armageddon and Ragnarok. The end of the world, right? It creates the same kind of response in them that God's coming on Sinai created. That's ironically the exact opposite response that Hebrews is trying to garner. You have not come to Mount Sinai, but to Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem. And therefore, the original context of Haggai has to be kept in your mind. Yet once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. God is coming in power for the good of his people and for the glory of his son and spirit. This news is meant, as Gregory says, to persuade us rather than to force us. Forcing, he says, is used to keep things in check and despots use force. But persuasion is spontaneous and it comes from your own heart and so it lasts and it's secure. That's why when you read the good news, it has to be something that sticks with you and comes from inside of you. Then and only then should you let your mind start to think beyond. Once you've understood that Christ has come and has rebuilt the temple of God and is gaining glory in the world through what he has done, then you can start to think beyond that. And you must do this. Yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken, it says. What are things that are shaken? Let me give you some things to think about. It says things that are shaken are things that have been made. So firstly, it's talking about world systems, governments, politics, the cultures of mankind. Those who put their trust in princes will fall. Those who trust in a nation or a president or people who believe that one country or political view or candidate will save everyone, they're greatly mistaken. You are not to be anxious about the current political season, for these things have been and are being and will be shaken. That's the way of things. If you are anxious, then you need to retreat to the safe place where Christ is and stop worrying about what God has ordained. You are the firstborn children of heaven, not of earth. Second, these shaken things include the heavenly powers called principalities. These are they who stand behind the earthly powers. They are the Elohim of Psalm 82, decreed to die like any prince. The prince of Greece, the prince of Persia, and so on. The earth is utterly broken. Listen to Isaiah. The earth is split apart. The earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers like a drunken man, it sways like a hut, its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls and will not rise again. On that day the Lord will punish the hosts of heaven in heaven and the kings of the earth on the earth." They are shaken. Isaiah is looking far into the future, but that future began when the Son of God conquered and became king in his resurrection and ascension. Satan was put under the kings of the earth scoff, but find no way to undermine his rule that is already that is eschatology and yet this looks Farther forward to a day in the future when the king will come in his glorious second coming to make all things new and right The evil the corruption the sin the rebellion will all be suddenly stopped in the twinkling of an eye these things are shaken and These things have tainted the whole world and so even the very creation itself groans in anticipation of its liberation to its bondage to decay. The Lord Jesus will usher in a day when heaven and earth will be made new and that which is not able to be shaken can remain. What is not shaken? It is his kingdom. It is his people. That's eschatology. And that is the application of this in Hebrews. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. The kingdom of God is here. It is within you. You can't see it. You can't touch it. You can't find it on a map. But it is here and you have come to it. And therefore, you are to be grateful. This is exactly why we've gathered on this new Lord's Day to worship the king and to be thankful that he's put us into his kingdom. Giving thanks from your heart for all these things is the beginning of the offering up of acceptable worship. That means there is worship that is unacceptable when it is forced, when it is wrong, when it is fleshly. Acceptable worship begins here with reverence and awe at things that you do not see but know are true. This is just the beginning of our worship. And we will see much more of it when we finish the rest of the letter together. Until then, I want us to root our reverence and awe the way he does in the person of God and his immutable character. He's always the same. People like to think that the God of the Old Testament was fiery hot. and then somehow change the God of the New Testament. But this tells us, in the last verse of our chapter, in the New Testament, God is a consuming fire. Now that comes from Deuteronomy, starting in chapter 4. And it reveals that it is the same God throughout the Bible. The image is both frightening and yet, believe it or not, it is strangely comforting. The fire of God in the Pentateuch is the place to begin to understand how it can be both. So oftentimes, the fire of God consumes his adversaries. You think of Sodom, destroyed by fire. Nadab and Abihu, destroyed by fire. The land of Egypt was burnt by fire. Korah and 250 men who rebelled against Moses were consumed by fire. The fires of hell await those who refuse God's grace in Christ. But do you remember other things? When Moses approached the fiery bush, neither he nor the bush were consumed. The pillar of fire went before Israel and fought for him. The fire of God consumed, it says, the sacrifices, and God forgave their sins. This then is the dual edge of the consuming fire. Will it be the raging prairie or hot forest fire of God's unmitigated wrath apart from the sacrificial death of the sun for you? The blazing eyes of fire of Christ returning on his white steed at the second coming with the voice of the trumpet to make the whole world shake? Is that the fire you want? Or will it be the purifying fire that consumes the impurities but leaves the gold of the one declared righteous in Christ, who in his first coming Hid His Shekinah glory that He might win us salvation. Overwhelming fire to scald and devour? Seeing the face of God like Mount Sinai? Or fire contained to warm and delight? God hidden in human flesh and ascended to the heavenly Jerusalem. Maybe Moses said it best. Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, we will die. And yet in the Lord Jesus, he is the word of God. The thundering sound is a gentle voice calling you to worship him in spirit and truth. Let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. That is biblical eschatology. It is our spiritual act of worship. Father, we thank you for your word today. I think about the prophet who says that fire consumed him until it came out of his belly. The word of the Lord is a fire that consumes people, but is also a fire that saves people. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to understand your word today. Hebrews 12 is such a remarkable text, really a high point of the New Testament. And I pray that you would help us to understand better who you are through it, who we are through it, what you have done for us through Christ and his first coming, and what you are going to do in the future when he returns again in glory. Help us to worship you better with reverence and awe. with our acceptable worship, because you are the consuming fire. And we pray that your fire would not consume us to destroy us, but would consume our hearts and warm us and lighten us up with the truth of your word so that we might be on fire when we leave this place, knowing that you have met with us and lifted us into heaven. We ask in Jesus' name that you would hear our prayer. Amen.