Pray for Amy, give her strength as she teaches them. And I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. If you have a copy of God's word, I'd ask you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter number 12, and we'll begin reading in verse number 18. Hebrews chapter 12, beginning in verse 18. The scripture says, for you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and 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. but you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, and the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Amen. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. Well, we're at the climax, the book of Hebrews. It's been a long journey. We're only going to have a couple more messages in Hebrews. The book is almost finished. But this is the climax of the book. If you ever remember from your days in school, there was always in a story, there was always the, the build-up to the climax of the story, right? And the anticipation to know what was going to happen. Well, this is it. This is the climax of Hebrews. Everything has been laid out. Every argument has been made. Every example, every comparison is now being brought to its elos, to its finality. The exhortations that the apostle has given throughout the book, and especially in the previous two chapters to continue to run the race, to continue in the faith, not turn back, all of it comes to a climax here. all of the previous themes that he has introduced right from the beginning of the book come into play here as well. They all, of course, revolve around the main theme of the book in its overarching theme, which is the supremacy of Christ. Christ is above all things. He is over all things, which therefore makes him alone worthy of our worship, of our adoration, and of our faithfulness. And all of this is brought here into this concluding passage. In chapter 1, of course, he spoke of angels. He's going to speak of angels here. He speaks of heaven. He speaks of the firstborn. He speaks of perfection. And then he speaks, lastly, as he brings it all together, that it culminates in Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, the sprinkled blood, He talks of the saints enrolled in heaven, the better blood of Christ over Abel. All of these brought together here at the last to show these Hebrew Christians, these Jewish Christians, the main reason why they should endure and not to give up. And it is because of this. They have not come to the mountain of the old covenant of Sinai. Rather, they have come to the mountain of the new covenant, which is called Zion. And that is the main two points here. There's several sub-points under each one. But the main two points are Mount Sinai, which I have called the terror of the Lord, and then Mount Zion, which is the grace of the Lord. So let's examine this passage here briefly this morning. Now the previous two verses from what we've just read, we just read from verse 18 down to verse 24. The previous two verses, I'm just going to read them to give us a little bit of context because this is really part of his argument as well. And that of course has to do with what we did, what we talked about last week. And that is back in verse 15, he says, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. Now, of course, the grace of God, he's going to bring out here that the grace of God is found in Mount Zion. We're going to talk about that a little bit later, but part of that obtaining or failing to obtain the grace of God is wrapped up in this phrase here in verse 15, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it, many become defiled. He says, that I don't want you to become bitter in your hearts towards the Lord and towards other people in the congregation. And I briefly spoke of this last week, how that a root of bitterness can spring up, not only in the heart of someone personally, but it can spring up in a church through someone. And that person's attitude, their bitterness can spread to others. And this is something that we need to be aware of and we need to guard against it. Now he brings it into an example from the Old Covenant under verse 16. Notice what he says, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau. who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears." So the example here, briefly, is that of Esau. Esau, of course, was the twin brother of Jacob. Jacob and Esau were the sons of Isaac. So Esau was the older brother. He should have received the blessing from God. He was the one who had the birthright. And when we talk about the birthright, what we're talking about is the promises of God. the promises of God that God gave to Abraham. He said, Abraham, I'm going to make of you a great nation, and through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed. He then passes that down to his son of promise, which is Isaac, and then Isaac has two sons, and it's supposed to go to Esau, but we know the story of Esau, don't we? And he makes reference to it here. Esau despises his birthright. Now, that doesn't sound really important to us in our day and age because birthrights don't really mean much. But in that day and age, it meant everything. And in terms of what God had promised to Abraham and to Isaac, by despising his birthright, what the scripture's actually teaching is that Esau himself is despising God. and he's despising God's promises. He's saying, I don't care about God. I don't care about his promises. I don't need that birthright. I'm really hungry right now. Give me that bowl of soup. That's the story, right? He comes in from the field. He's hungry. He says, I'm ready to die. And Jacob says, hey, I've made some soup for you. If you sell me your birthright, I'll give you the soup. And Esau is such a godless man. He has so little regard for God and for his commandments and the God of his father that he says, oh, I don't care about my birthright. Give me that soup. I'm going to die. That is why. It's not about soup, OK? It's about Esau's attitude towards God, and towards the covenant, and toward the promises that God had made. Then, of course, it says here, verse 17, you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing. See, Esau wanted the blessing without the covenant. And so later on, he's ready to get the blessing, and of course you know the story about that too. His father Isaac sends him out, says, you know, go get me some venison that I love and bring it back, and then I'll bless you. I'll give you the blessing of the firstborn. But he'd already sold his birthright. And so he goes out, now Jacob goes in and he steals it. Now we might focus on that and say, oh wow, Jacob was bad, right? He was a deceiver, his mom told him, Rebecca's actually the one who told him to do it, right? And he got the blessing instead. But here's the thing though. God knew that situation, didn't He? Who was to get the blessing? It was Jacob. Now, can God work through a bad situation to bring out something good? Absolutely. That was our main theme this week. I think I've said that a hundred times this week with the children. God works through bad things and even sinful things in order to bring out His glory and His good. And that's what happens with Jacob. But Esau loses the blessing. You see, Esau wanted that blessing because it meant that he would inherit everything. You see, he wanted the stuff without the responsibility. He wanted to inherit all the things of his father without actually having the covenant and honoring God through the covenant. And so when he lost the stuff, that's what it says here, that afterward he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. Don't ever think that Esau was trying to repent of his sin. That wasn't what he was repenting of. He was like the little child who had done wrong and gotten caught, and his little tears, or her little tears, they're not for their sin. They're because they got caught. because they didn't get what they wanted. And that's Esau here. He's seeking it with tears. He wants the blessing, but not for the right reasons. He wants it because he's a selfish, godless man. And that is the example here that the apostle is making. He's saying, don't be that way. Don't be like Esau, where you want the blessing without the responsibility. The responsibility to God in the covenant. And so this is where we come this morning now, to verse 18, because the very first word of that sentence, notice in verse 18, what's the first word? For. So we're in the conclusion. He's saying, because of what I said, 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." Well, just stop there for a moment. What's he talking about here? The author's point here is that his readers have not come to Mount Sinai in the same way that the descendants of Jacob came to Mount Sinai. Esau's descendants didn't go to Sinai. They were completely rejected. But Jacob's descendants, they become the 12 tribes of Israel. Right? And then, they're the ones who go to Sinai. And, of course, we know the story. They come out of Egypt. They are delivered by God through a great deliverance. They come to Sinai to receive the covenant. But remember, Sinai is the mountain of judgment. And his language here is very descriptive. It actually draws from several texts in Exodus chapter 19 and Exodus chapter 20, Deuteronomy chapter 4 and chapter 5. are five things here in the text that he describes Sinai in such a way of the Israelites' experience there. They are what may be touched, the blazing fire, darkness, gloom, and tempest, the sound of a trumpet and the voice of God, These things here, we're going to look at each one and what they mean in terms of the Old Covenant and why we and the people he's speaking to have not come to the mountain of Sinai. Because if we come to Sinai, then we will be judged. And justly and righteously you will be judged, but if you come there, then you will be judged by God. The first is the phrase, what may be touched. This is really important in the context here, because it emphasizes that the covenant was a physical covenant. And again, this draws upon the language that he's already talked about. The fact that in chapters 9 and 10, he talks about the physical tabernacle. in the old covenant, right? All the furnishings, remember we talked about all the different furnishings of the old tabernacle, the brazen altar, the brazen laver, the menorah, the table of showbread, the altar of incense, the Ark of the Covenant. They were all physical things. We had an earthly physical priesthood. that was through Aaron, who was a son of Levi. This is a physical descent that the priesthood was based upon, this physical descent. How did you become a priest? Your daddy had to be a priest, and so on and so forth. There were physical sacrifices of animals. The blood was real, the physical blood. The smoke could be seen and smelled. The screams of the animals, heard, all of it, very physical. And he ties it to a real physical mountain called Sinai, which is a real place in the Arabian Desert. So, what may be touched? The physical part of the Old Covenant. Now secondly, we see here this phrase, the blazing fire, darkness, gloom, and tempest. And once again, the physicality of the Old Covenant, based on these physical things, we've got blazing fire, shrouded in a physical darkness and gloom and a tempest. The Greek word there actually means a whirlwind. I couldn't help but think of Hosea chapter number 8 where it says that they have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind. God often comes physically in the Old Covenant in a picture, he often uses the whirlwind to describe his presence, how he comes and judges his people. He's a whirlwind, he's a tempest here. So it wasn't just fire, it was this whirlwind and all the storm and the thunder and the lightning, all of it happening there. This experience would have been at that point in time, think of Israel, when they come to Sinai. Have they ever seen anything like this? Even the 10 plagues and the wind that blew and opened up the Red Sea, all those things, very physical things, they would have been fantastic and awesome. But now they see God himself has come down on the mountain and is manifesting himself in these ways. It would have been absolutely terrifying to them. Never in one time in 400 years had any of the Egyptian gods ever done anything like this. Their priests didn't meet with God in whirlwinds. Their priests didn't meet with their gods in blazing fire or physical darkness and gloom or earthquakes. But the God of Israel does when he comes. In judgment, this is how he appears. What a stark contrast between Yahweh and between the false gods of Egypt. And it was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. The third thing we see is the sound of a trumpet and then a voice. Add to all of that, as if all that's not enough, we have the darkness and gloom, the whirlwind, the earthquake. We have this terrifying sound of a trumpet blast that is so loud and so deafening that the people actually beg Moses to ask God to stop speaking to them because they cannot bear the sound. It is deafening to them and absolutely terrifying. They say, Moses, we can't bear to hear the voice of God. It's too much for us. It's too terrifying. You go up on the mountain, Moses. We'll pray for you, Moses, when you go. We'll pray for you. Would you go up there and you talk to God and then you come back down and tell us what God has said? Next we see that no one could touch the mountain. Notice that there in verse 20. If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. You see, when Yahweh is present, God is so holy, his presence is so terrible that no one can approach him. To even touch the ground where he's present would cause someone to die. This is why the Lord gave the people the command not to come near the mountain. As long as I am there, you put a border around the mountain, set up a fence of some kind so that no one can go through to touch the mountain, not even a beast. Because if they do, they're to be stoned and die because it is holy ground. Now, when I was studying that, it immediately popped into my mind, and maybe it just did into yours. Remember when Moses first meets with God back in Exodus chapter three. And Moses sees the Lord, the angel of the Lord, in what? The burning bush, right? That's God himself in the burning bush. And Moses is allowed to approach God. God says to him, put your shoes off your feet. Why? Because you're standing on holy ground. But that's a miracle, the grace of God that he would allow Moses to even approach him in such a way. Because here we are in chapter 20 of Exodus, where they're coming to the mountain, and God is saying, you can't even touch the mountain, because if you do, you're to be stoned. Not even an animal is allowed to. That's how holy God is. And all of that, my friends, to give us this picture of God, that our God is an awesome God, And that means he is absolutely holy and he's not to be trifled with. This then brings us to the last point underneath this section, that is this, that even Moses trembled with fear. We've talked about this before. This is a major point in the early chapters of the book of Hebrews because Moses is the greatest prophet of the Old Testament. He is the law giver. He is the one who literally, as I've already said, physically is allowed to go into the presence of God. He even sees the afterglow of the glory of God, so that his face shines. They had to put a veil over Moses' face. Moses was very revered among the people, and even in Jesus' day, in the New Testament, Moses is the greatest of all of the Old Testament prophets. So this phrase here, to even suggest that as great as Moses was, That even he said, I rumble with fear in the presence of God? You know, it's possible here that the Apostle is actually drawing the full implications of the entire Old Covenant here into account. because the only place that we have in the scripture that Moses said, I fear the glory of the Lord or the judgment of God was when they built the golden calf. And that was when he says that. And so it's possible here that the apostle is drawing all of that together, that Moses had the fear of the Lord and it really came out when they built the golden calf. Moses said, I fear God greater now than I've ever feared Him before. Because I've seen who God is. I've seen His glory. I've seen all the fire and the brimstone. And let me tell you something, that God is the one who's going to judge you now because you built the golden calf. And I fear, not just for you, but for myself. That God's going to include me in that judgment. In other words, if we approach the holy mountain of Sinai without the grace of God, without His protection to shield us from His holy judgment, I say to you this morning, we should be very, very afraid. And this is a message that we need to preach, amen? This is something, as we present the gospel to people, we need to start with the fear of God. Our God is a holy God. Our God is a just God. Our God will punish sin. He demands holiness and righteousness. He is the God of Sinai. It is his law, which he sets up as the holy standard of his righteousness. And we ought to fear him. But as I've said, if we come on the basis of our righteousness alone, if we attempt to approach that holy God, we absolutely, first of all, have every right to be afraid and we will be destroyed. And I say all that because the starkness, I'm trying to draw this picture as he's drawing in the text here, the starkness of the contrast The difference between Sinai and Zion is literally like night and day. There is no comparison. Absolutely none. And this is where we come to now in the text. He says in verse number 22, but, and I love that word, that's a great theological word, amen, is one of the most important theological words in the Bible, but, You have not come to Sinai. You have come where? To Mount Zion. Praise God, hallelujah! We didn't come to Sinai. We're coming to Mount Zion, to the City of the Living God! to the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 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 the new covenant, to the sprinkled blood that speaks better words than the blood of Abel. First, we come to Mount Zion. The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. We've talked about Mount Zion in previous messages. This was the place that King David captured when he was anointed as king the second time following the death of Saul and he becomes king of all of Israel. The first thing he does is he goes to capture Mount Zion. That's Jerusalem. It was held by the Jebusites during his time. And he captures it and he makes it the city of David. We also see that in times past previous to that, this is where Melchizedek comes in, the king-priest of Salem, who has the authority as priest of the Most High God. This is tying together, then, the kingship and the priesthood of Jesus Christ. And the phrase here, but you have come, has an already-not-yet dimension to it. I know I mentioned that quite a bit. That already, but not yet. The already, but the not yet. In other words, you have come to Zion, you're the city of God, but you're still waiting for the fullness of the promise. Again, think back to the faith chapter. Think back to chapter 11. All those Old Testament saints who look forward to the promise, The promise of Christ. It had been partially fulfilled. The shadows of it, through the covenant, the old covenant, and the tabernacle, but they hadn't received it yet. But then Christ comes, and he fulfills those things, and now you and I have received that, but even then, not yet. Because we're not in the fullness of the kingdom yet. We're still waiting for the redemption of our bodies, where Christ, when he returns, will restore the earth to its original form. We're waiting for that. Hasn't happened yet. But we've begun the process. You see, the Kingdom of God is here, but it's not here. It's already, but not yet. And that's the idea. You have come to Mount Zion, to the City of the Living God. Notice what he says. The heavenly Jerusalem. Here he's linking Zion to the city of Jerusalem, but here he calls it the heavenly city. Now this, of course, goes back to what I believe is the main reference that he makes in the book of Hebrews, which is Psalm 110. And that, of course, is the royal psalm that speaks of the Messiah who will come, and he will restore all things, and he will rule over all of creation. All the nations will bow before him. This is what he's talking about here. And he says it's a heavenly city, the New Jerusalem. Psalm 110 verse 2 says, the Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. And he says, rule in the midst of your enemies. When you stood out there yesterday at the strip district, you were standing out there as an ambassador of the King of Kings. And you were saying, he is the King of Kings, bow before him. He is the ruler of all. Bow before his kingship and his rulership. And someday he is coming again and you will bow. You will declare him to be Lord. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And just as the old tabernacle and its furniture pointed towards the heavenly tabernacle, so the earthly Zion points towards the heavenly one. In this sense, we are still looking forward to the coming of the heavenly New Jerusalem, which is the kingdom of God in its fullness on earth, with Christ ruling over the nations with a rod of iron. But at the same time, we've already come to that city. You see, you're already a citizen of Zion. You're already a citizen. of the city of God and the kingdom of God. So that means wherever you go, you are proclaiming and declaring the kingdom. And then next he says, you're also part of an innumerable company of angels in festal gathering. To emphasize the heavenliness of the kingdom, he tells us that there's angels there. And they're in festal gathering. The word festal gathering here is used in reference to the Old Testament feasts. These were times of worship and times of joy and celebration. And here the angels are said to be gathered for a joyful worship together. And then thirdly we see, he says, to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. And this is the apostle telling us that the angels are not alone in their worship. And again, we see this when we go to the book of Revelation, where the apostle John says, I stood before the throne and I saw an innumerable company of people from every language and tribe and nation on the earth, and they were all praising and worshiping God. This is the idea. This means all of us. This means the believers. This includes all the saints from chapter 11, the saints that have gone before us. It would include all the saints in the new covenant. Those who are buried up here in the cemetery, those of us who will be buried before the return of Christ, and those who will be assembled all together, all of us, the word assembly here, of course, is the same word we translate our word church from. It means the assembly of believers of the Church of Jesus Christ. God's people, Old Covenant, New Covenant, both Jew and Gentile, bond and free, male and female, all of us gathered together with the holy angels on Mount Zion, the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to worship and adore and praise Yahweh the King. Next we see he says, gathered together to God. God, who is the judge of all, In the Greek, the word order has judge at the beginning. Judge is the first word in the Greek phrase. And this is done on purpose, once again, because he's emphasizing the fact that even though we are in this festal gathering of the worship of the saints, or worship of God, as saints, that he is still holy. God doesn't lay aside his holiness. He is still holy. And he's awesome. This joyful gathering of the saints is a joyful gathering should never be taken lightly. God does not set aside his holiness. The people under the old covenant could not touch Sinai. The people under the new covenant are commanded to do what? Chapter 4, verse 16, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain grace to help in time of need. And then he says in chapter 10 that we are to come with full assurance. We do not come alone. We do not come because of any righteousness of our own. We do not come because sacrifices have been made or because of an earthly tabernacle. Lastly, he says, we come, in verse 24, because of Jesus. the mediator of the New Covenant. This is the climax. Again, Jesus and the greatness of Jesus and his supremacy over all things, everything points to him. He is the one who is the mediator of this New Covenant. I'm not the mediator of this New Covenant. You're not the mediator of this New Covenant. No priest is the mediator of the New Covenant. No pope is the mediator of the New Covenant. Jesus Christ himself is the mediator of the New Covenant. Emphasis on New Covenant. Under the New Covenant, believers may approach the throne of God any time of day, any day of the year. Under the Old Covenant, only once a year. And even then, only one representative of the people. But under the new covenant, we can come on the basis of the mediator of the new covenant, who is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What a blessing. What a blessing. I don't think we really, really think about that. I would encourage you to do so. The fact—listen. The fact that you're even here this morning under the sound of my voice is the grace of God. Not that I am anything special, but because you and I are here on the basis of what Jesus Christ has done. Not upon what I have said or done. And brother, if that doesn't move you, you need to get saved. Amen? There's an altar here. Well, maybe we should have an altar call today. Don't do that very often. Amen? We'll have a consecration night like we did Thursday, Brother Randy. To attempt to approach God without the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ would not only be foolishness, it would mean eternal ruin and judgment. And to these Jewish Christians, he's emphasizing that fact. He's saying they can never approach God in any other way than through Jesus Christ. It's the only way. Now, if that makes us exclusive, then so be it. If that makes us bigots, according to what the world says, or whatever other label they want to use for us, then so be it. But as I stand here today on July the 6th, 2025, at the North Ten Mile Baptist Church in Amity, Pennsylvania, Jesus Christ is still the only way to heaven. Say amen. He is still the only mediator of the New Covenant. This is why he says, lastly, the final phrase, through the sprinkled blood, that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Sins are forgiven because of the blood of Christ. His sacrifice is so much better than any other sacrifice that has ever been made. He mentions Abel's sacrifice here. We don't need to dig down deep into Abel's sacrifice once again. But suffice to say, Abel's sacrifice represents his trust in the promises of God. But Christ's blood was not for himself. His sacrifice was for every single person sitting in this room here today, and everyone else who's under the sound of my voice, everyone who will put their faith in Christ and Jesus Christ alone. His sacrifice is for them. That is why it is the best sacrifice. Zion, Iowa, is a place of terror, a place of fear, but Zion is a place of rejoicing. It's a place of grace. It is the difference between the God of the Old Covenant and the God of the New Covenant. Not that He's some God of judgment in the Old, but only a God of grace in the New. He's still the same God. But what is the difference? The difference is found here in verse number 24. Jesus, He's the difference. You approach Sinai without Jesus, you are under the judgment of God. But when you approach God under the New Covenant, you approach him through the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ. And his blood covers you. He protects you from the wrath of God because he has faced God's wrath when he hung upon that cross. You are not under, if you are not under the blood of Christ, and you've not submitted to him as your Lord today, I beg of you, do not leave this property unless you do. The Scripture says today is the day of salvation. That tomorrow, that next week or next year, today is the day of salvation. Those young ladies in that camp in Texas did not know that the hour of their reckoning had come. I pray that every single one of them knew Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It's a tragedy from our point of view, but if there were Christians, if they knew Christ, they're in his presence now. And in that, we can rejoice. But I pray that I don't care how old you are. I don't care if you're five years old or if you're 100 years old. You need to be saved. You need to know the mediator of the new covenant. And you need to be under his blood. If you are a Christian, If you're a believer and you've been washed in the blood of the Christ, then I beg of you, let us eat like it. Let us walk in the steps of our Savior as he has commanded us here in Hebrews chapter 12, the beginning of the chapter, which is that we run the race, laying aside the weight, the sin, which so easily besets us, looking unto Jesus, who is the author, the founder, and the finisher of our faith. Let us submit to him as our Lord and walk in his footsteps every day. Let us pray. Father God, you alone are worthy of our worship and our praise. Lord, I submit myself to you and I pray that every person here in this room would do so. that if there's one person under the sound of my voice, even if it's a recording, and they listen to this a year from now, 10 years from now, that they would hear the voice of God, the Holy Spirit, speaking to them that they need to trust Christ and do it now before it's too late. Not to be like Esau, who when he sought the blessing was too late, too late, too late. by Judas, who knew that he'd betrayed the innocent blood, but it was too late. Oh, Lord, I pray that would not be the testimony of anyone here. Now, Father, I lift this service up to you. I lift this message up to you. I ask that you would