WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:19.080 Now please turn up Hebrews chapter 12 and have a look at verse 12. Lift your drooping hands 00:00:19.080 --> 00:00:26.400 ! Drooping hands and weak knees. It's a pretty honest description of the Christian life a 00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:33.219 lot of the time, isn't it? Whether it's the strong pull that we feel that we can't deny to follow 00:00:33.219 --> 00:00:42.739 our desires off track and into sin, or that sense of disappointment that rises up because you've 00:00:42.739 --> 00:00:50.759 given into temptation again in the same area, or because of the opposition that you experience 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:57.699 from friends or colleagues because you're a Christian, or simply that you are fed up. 00:00:58.699 --> 00:01:06.579 God hasn't given you the life that you wanted, and you're discouraged and disillusioned. 00:01:07.579 --> 00:01:13.479 Your hands are drooping, and your knees are weak, and you feel wobbly. 00:01:13.480 --> 00:01:20.579 Remember that famous footage? It was back in 2016. It's quite a long time ago now. 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:25.740 Johnny Brownlee, the British triathlete, that famous footage. He's leading the race as he's coming into 00:01:25.740 --> 00:01:33.740 the end, and the camera is going along beside him, and his head is rolling. His eyes are spinning. 00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:40.620 He's running. His cadence has gone completely. His legs aren't working as they should do. 00:01:40.620 --> 00:01:49.880 He's absolutely exhausted. I think we can feel a bit like that spiritually sometimes. It was certainly 00:01:49.880 --> 00:01:54.640 that way for the Hebrews, as we've discovered as we've gone through this letter. They're weary. 00:01:54.980 --> 00:02:01.939 They're discouraged. They're disillusioned, and they want to give up. And this section we've seen back 00:02:01.939 --> 00:02:10.060 from the beginning of chapter 11 is focused on encouraging them to keep going. Drooping hands, yes. 00:02:10.060 --> 00:02:18.719 Yes, weak knees, yes, but keep going. There is a great cloud of witnesses, chapter 11. Those who have 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:26.140 gone ahead, and the struggles that you experience, chapter 12, verses 1 to 11, what we saw last time, 00:02:26.599 --> 00:02:32.460 those aren't something to despise. The struggles that you're going through are not something to think 00:02:32.460 --> 00:02:38.120 badly of, actually, however difficult they are. Because they are, we were told, the loving discipline 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:45.080 of our Heavenly Father. The one who holds the whole world in his hands allows these trials, 00:02:45.659 --> 00:02:54.640 whether it's opposition or hardship, even our own sin, to train and instruct us, and to work in us 00:02:54.639 --> 00:03:02.079 the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Chapter 12, verse 11. For the moment, all discipline seems 00:03:02.079 --> 00:03:08.959 painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who 00:03:08.959 --> 00:03:14.799 have been trained by it. Just as good earthly fathers discipline their children, so it is with our Father 00:03:14.799 --> 00:03:20.539 in heaven. And it's not just that God, our Father, is treating us like the perfect Father would, 00:03:20.539 --> 00:03:27.840 the perfect earthly Father would, but he is treating us as he did his own Son, the Lord Jesus. Remember, 00:03:27.979 --> 00:03:33.599 just as Christ came in the flesh and had to be made perfect through suffering, we were told, 00:03:34.299 --> 00:03:42.479 so it is with all of God's children. The path to perfection, the path to glory, is a cross-shaped, 00:03:43.319 --> 00:03:50.000 suffering-paved path. This discipline, these trials, the suffering, 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:54.219 that you're enduring, whether because of your own sin or because of someone else's sin, 00:03:54.479 --> 00:04:00.219 or just because the world is a broken place full of thorns and thistles, these are somehow in the 00:04:00.219 --> 00:04:05.900 infinite wisdom of God for our good. There is a day coming, you know, whatever you're struggling 00:04:05.900 --> 00:04:10.979 with now, there is a day coming when you will be able to say with the psalmist in Psalm 119, 00:04:10.979 --> 00:04:19.480 verse 71, it is good for me that I was afflicted. This evening you hear that and you think that is 00:04:19.480 --> 00:04:24.339 impossible, it sounds like insanity to me, but there is a day coming when you will see clearly 00:04:24.339 --> 00:04:32.019 and you will be able to say, it is good for me that I was afflicted. Well, this evening, 00:04:32.579 --> 00:04:35.839 to people with drooping hands and weak knees, to people like you and me, 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:44.619 the author gives us a charge and a motivation. A charge and a motivation. Point number one is the 00:04:44.619 --> 00:04:52.319 charge. Here it is. Get up and after godliness. Get up and after godliness. Verses 12 to 17. 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:57.120 Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees. All the stuff that I said last time 00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:03.059 about discipline, all the stuff that I said the week before that in chapter 11 about the people that are 00:05:03.060 --> 00:05:09.540 cheering you on that have gone ahead of you. Therefore, lift your drooping hands, strengthen 00:05:09.540 --> 00:05:15.319 your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of 00:05:15.319 --> 00:05:23.680 joint but rather be healed. He's alluding here to Isaiah 35 verses 3 and 4. Here's what Isaiah says, 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:28.360 strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, 00:05:28.360 --> 00:05:34.040 be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With the recompense of God, 00:05:34.100 --> 00:05:41.680 he will come and save you. Get up and get going. Strengthen your faith. Clear the way. Get rid of 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:46.379 the hindrances. Do you remember? He told us this last time. Get rid of those hindrances. Clear the way. 00:05:46.460 --> 00:05:52.480 Those things that might cause you to trip, get rid of them so that you can strengthen your limping faith 00:05:52.480 --> 00:06:00.980 rather than let it fracture completely. It is easy for weak faith to be weakened further by focusing 00:06:00.980 --> 00:06:08.680 on the weakness and worrying about it or complaining about it or adopting a defeatist attitude. Lots of 00:06:08.680 --> 00:06:12.840 us can feel a bit like that sometimes. Oh, I don't think I'm ever going to finish this race. 00:06:13.580 --> 00:06:20.180 My faith is weak. I feel like I'm about to fall over at every turn and I'm looking up ahead to glory 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:24.639 and I'm thinking to myself, I'm never going to make it. Run the race marked out for you, you say, 00:06:24.840 --> 00:06:30.360 author to the Hebrews. Well, no, I can't. I'm not going to be able to make it. But don't forget, 00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:39.980 Isaiah 35, be strong. Fear not. Your God will come and save you. Your God will come and he will save you. 00:06:39.980 --> 00:06:46.860 He will get you to glory. If you are genuinely trusting the Lord Jesus Christ, the day is coming 00:06:46.860 --> 00:06:53.720 when your God will come and save you fully and finally into his presence. This experience that 00:06:53.720 --> 00:07:00.660 we go through now, this struggle is only for a time. Your God will come and save you. 00:07:02.199 --> 00:07:10.240 So, in this time, he says, use it well, verse 14, while you wait for future glory, strive for peace 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:16.420 with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. It is literally, go on 00:07:16.420 --> 00:07:22.240 striving for peace with everyone. Go on making the effort. These things don't just fall into your lap. 00:07:22.300 --> 00:07:28.379 It doesn't just happen. Make the effort to live out the peaceful fruit of righteousness that he talked 00:07:28.379 --> 00:07:37.500 about in verse 11. That means strive for peace with everyone. Pursue peace with everyone. As those who 00:07:37.500 --> 00:07:43.399 know and serve the Lord Jesus, the Prince of Peace, we are to work hard to cultivate peace wherever we go. 00:07:44.259 --> 00:07:49.680 We are to be people of peace. And not just pursuing peace with people who are like us. 00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:55.800 People that we like. People that we find it easy to be peaceable with because they like the same things 00:07:55.800 --> 00:08:01.540 we do and they think the same way we do. We're to pursue peace with everyone, he says. 00:08:01.540 --> 00:08:08.760 Even those who oppose your Christian faith and make life difficult for you. Strive for peace with them. 00:08:09.939 --> 00:08:14.920 You don't have to agree with them. We certainly don't join them in their sin. Pursuing peace with 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:19.379 that colleague who doesn't like you because your Christian faith means that you simply can't cheer 00:08:19.379 --> 00:08:24.100 the things that they want you to cheer. It obviously doesn't mean that you agree with them, 00:08:24.100 --> 00:08:31.060 but it means that you strive to treat them with respect and serve them where you can. Strive for 00:08:31.060 --> 00:08:38.800 peace with everyone. He doesn't say it'll be easy, but it's what those who have experienced peace with 00:08:38.800 --> 00:08:45.820 God must endeavor to do. You don't need to right every wrong. You know that? You don't need to fight 00:08:45.820 --> 00:08:53.899 every battle. You know that? Some of us think like that, I think, sometimes, but it just robs us of peace. 00:08:53.899 --> 00:09:00.120 And actually, it makes us annoying to people around us. We lose our own peace because we feel like we 00:09:00.120 --> 00:09:05.079 have to fight every battle. We have to put out every fire, wherever that might be. But that kind of 00:09:05.079 --> 00:09:10.899 person is quite annoying. In fact, in many cases, people think that they're opposed, they're being 00:09:10.899 --> 00:09:15.159 persecuted for their Christian faith when they're simply being criticized for being annoying. 00:09:18.019 --> 00:09:23.759 Above all, of course, this peace should be evident in our life together here in the church community. 00:09:23.899 --> 00:09:31.179 A community of those who have experienced peace with God are to live out the peace of God together. 00:09:32.899 --> 00:09:37.340 And a peaceable spirit, I want to say, particularly in our day, particularly at this moment in our 00:09:37.340 --> 00:09:43.439 culture, a peaceable spirit is perhaps one of the areas where we will be most distinctive to those 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:51.880 people. You don't need to look very far to see just how angry people are all the time. In traffic, 00:09:52.080 --> 00:10:02.280 in queues. I was in the airport this week. People were raging everywhere because they couldn't get to 00:10:02.280 --> 00:10:06.920 where they needed to get to, or people were in front of them, or their group wasn't called early 00:10:06.919 --> 00:10:12.019 enough or whatever it might be. And then you go online and it's taken to a whole new level. There's 00:10:12.019 --> 00:10:19.079 just rage everywhere. In a culture like this, people who pursue peace stand out in an attractive 00:10:19.079 --> 00:10:27.179 way. You can disagree peaceably. Not talking about some big linking of arms and we all get along and 00:10:27.179 --> 00:10:31.799 don't worry about our disagreements. Don't worry about the way you treated me. That's fine. We'll 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:41.139 just get along and rub each other's backs. No. But it is possible to pursue peace and to pursue 00:10:41.139 --> 00:10:46.879 peace in our relationships, particularly in the church. Strive to do it, he says. Do what it takes 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:53.479 to right wrongs, to resolve grudges, to set aside grievances. Strive for peace with everyone. 00:10:55.319 --> 00:11:00.139 Alongside that, he says, we're also to strive for the holiness without which no one will see 00:11:00.139 --> 00:11:05.860 the Lord. Now, holiness here, holiness that he's speaking about here is a life that is 00:11:05.860 --> 00:11:12.860 increasingly transformed by and dedicated to God. We're told back in chapter 10, verse 14, 00:11:12.860 --> 00:11:19.699 that we have been perfected through Christ's once-for-all sacrifice. Made holy in that sense. 00:11:20.580 --> 00:11:22.580 Here we're being told to go and live that out. 00:11:25.179 --> 00:11:28.580 Live out the holiness. You have been made holy, therefore live it out. 00:11:30.139 --> 00:11:34.819 And as has been the case throughout the letter, that is a matter of the heart. 00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:40.220 The author explains it negatively with reference to figures from the Old Testament. You see that? 00:11:40.299 --> 00:11:45.919 Verse 15, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:52.419 up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, 00:11:52.580 --> 00:11:58.419 who sold his birthright for a single meal. Multiple bad examples from the Old Testament. 00:11:58.419 --> 00:12:05.459 He talks here about failing to obtain the grace of God and the root of bitterness that grows up. He is 00:12:05.459 --> 00:12:10.339 talking about the wilderness generation. The ones who hardened their hearts to God's Word and failed, 00:12:10.579 --> 00:12:15.019 therefore, to enter the promised land. They were bitter about God's providence, and they grumbled 00:12:15.019 --> 00:12:22.740 about their lot. They grumbled in their bitterness because they didn't have what they wanted. 00:12:22.740 --> 00:12:30.600 And then he also names Esau. Esau is an example of one who allowed his appetites, first of all, for food, 00:12:30.899 --> 00:12:36.759 when his hunger led him to give up his birthright, his status as an heir, and then for foreign wives, 00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:42.120 his appetite for them to lead him away from the Lord altogether. And this went so deep in his heart that 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:47.899 in the end he wandered away into complete apostasy. When our appetites are in the driving seat, 00:12:47.899 --> 00:12:55.439 when we devote ourselves to, when we give ourselves, when we worship our pleasure and satisfaction, 00:12:56.439 --> 00:13:01.879 those things take control of us, and they will always, always lead us off course. You see it when, 00:13:02.059 --> 00:13:08.159 like Esau, we set aside what God wants in order to have what we want. When our appetites are in the 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:13.659 driving seat, and we walk across what God has said in his Word in order to have what we want. 00:13:13.659 --> 00:13:24.019 And Esau's example here should sober us. It is possible to do that so often that you wander so far 00:13:24.019 --> 00:13:28.699 that it's impossible to get back. One commentator says this, 00:13:28.740 --> 00:13:36.919 Do not fall into Esau's crass spiritual stupidity. Profanity and fornication are extremely short-sighted, 00:13:36.919 --> 00:13:44.219 and the consequences will follow. A man rapes what he sows. Esau could not undo his selling of his 00:13:44.219 --> 00:13:50.639 birthright, although he sought the opportunity with tears. Here's the thing. Let me say this. If you 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:56.919 are wandering, now you're here this evening to keep up appearances, but you know in your heart of hearts, 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:04.299 your heart is elsewhere. You are wandering from the Lord. Come back. Come back before it's too late. 00:14:04.299 --> 00:14:12.879 Come quickly. Come now. Repent of whatever it is, and resolve to walk back to the Lord. 00:14:15.359 --> 00:14:23.139 Hard hearts will give up. This isn't what I want. God, you're being mean to me. I've had enough. 00:14:23.779 --> 00:14:31.219 Hard hearts will give up. Bitter hearts will spread their misery, drawing other people in 00:14:31.220 --> 00:14:37.759 with destructive results in the life of the church. When the root of bitterness is allowed to grow up, 00:14:37.800 --> 00:14:43.600 and it spreads through the relationships and the life of the church, the effect of that is toxic. 00:14:45.660 --> 00:14:51.080 Hard hearts give up. Bitter hearts spread their misery. Selfish hearts will follow their appetites 00:14:51.080 --> 00:14:55.440 into all kinds of trouble. The author is saying here, 00:14:55.440 --> 00:15:03.120 strive, do all that you can to keep your heart soft to the Lord, and to pursue the holiness, 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:07.720 to pursue a life that is dedicated to God, that is needed if you will be there at the end, 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:10.280 to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:15:14.300 --> 00:15:20.680 And of course, let's remember that we do this together. The language throughout this section has 00:15:20.679 --> 00:15:29.539 the corporate community in view. To go back to Johnny Brownlee again, the Brownlee brothers. What 00:15:29.539 --> 00:15:36.500 was it that made that footage so compelling? It wasn't just Johnny's capacity to push himself 00:15:36.500 --> 00:15:44.359 into such pain. That in itself, for me anyway, was impressive. But it was what his brother Alistair did 00:15:44.359 --> 00:15:50.419 when he saw his brother about to stop in the race. He got hold of him, and he made sure to get him 00:15:50.419 --> 00:15:55.379 over the line. He gave up the position that he would have run past his brother and won the race 00:15:55.379 --> 00:16:01.959 himself. Instead, he stopped, put his arm around his brother, and in doing that, the other guy that 00:16:01.959 --> 00:16:06.939 was coming behind him ran past, and he won the race, and he carried his brother over the line. 00:16:08.139 --> 00:16:13.360 That's how the church should work in the race of the Christian life. We take hold of one another, 00:16:14.519 --> 00:16:19.399 drooping hands, weak knees. Perhaps we're not feeling that way. Well, we come along, and we 00:16:19.399 --> 00:16:26.279 put our arm around one another, and we carry each other forward in order that we make it to the end. 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:35.819 That's the charge. Get after godliness and do it together. But then we're given a two-fold 00:16:35.819 --> 00:16:42.379 motivation for why we should do this, starting with the four in verse 18. Here's point number two, 00:16:42.379 --> 00:16:48.639 the motivation, and it's an encouragement and a warning. Verses 18 to 29, an encouragement and a 00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:54.500 warning. Here's the encouragement. Verse 18, remember where you are. Remember where you are, 00:16:54.799 --> 00:17:00.379 for you have not come to what can be touched, what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom 00:17:00.379 --> 00:17:06.539 and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words may the hearers beg that no further 00:17:06.539 --> 00:17:13.599 messages be spoken to them. Then 22, verse 22, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:21.379 living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. The author is describing here two covenant mountains. The first 00:17:21.379 --> 00:17:26.680 is Sinai and the giving of the old covenant law. The second is Zion and the spiritual realities of the 00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:31.559 new covenant. And the point the author is making is the same one he's made throughout the book. The 00:17:31.559 --> 00:17:38.019 second mountain is better, way better than the first, because it is the glorious mountain of the 00:17:38.019 --> 00:17:44.399 better covenant that enables us to worship the living God. When Israel gathered with Moses at the 00:17:44.399 --> 00:17:51.440 base of Sinai, the presence of God was terrifying and overwhelming. Fire and darkness and trumpets, 00:17:51.899 --> 00:17:59.039 the voice of God that struck fear in everyone. Even Moses, look, verse 21, even Moses, who was himself 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:04.440 personally called by God to this ministry on recognizing the holiness of God and the sinfulness 00:18:04.440 --> 00:18:13.659 of man, he trembled. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. He was 00:18:13.659 --> 00:18:22.980 terrified. But the church today is not at Sinai. We have come to Mount Zion, and the church is described 00:18:22.980 --> 00:18:28.019 as a great and awesome city, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. In verse 22, 00:18:28.019 --> 00:18:32.660 we come together with the angelic host as part of the great assembly of the redeemed, 00:18:33.139 --> 00:18:38.299 all of those whose names are written in the book of life, the many sons who are being brought to glory 00:18:38.299 --> 00:18:45.059 into the presence of God, verse 23, and with Christ, verse 24, whose blood shed for us and sprinkled to 00:18:45.059 --> 00:18:49.639 make atonement for our sin and open the door into the presence of God. That blood speaks a better word 00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:59.140 than the blood of Abel. This is where you are. Sinai was physical. It could be touched, and so it was 00:18:59.140 --> 00:19:08.560 temporary. Zion is spiritual. It is heavenly, and therefore it's eternal. Sinai brought separation from 00:19:08.560 --> 00:19:15.440 God along with fear and the threat of death. Zion is a picture of celebratory joy and life, the life that 00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:21.380 Christ has won for all who have put their faith in Him. Here is the first motivation to get up and 00:19:21.380 --> 00:19:27.600 after godliness, to pursue peace and holiness together as the church, because we are gathered 00:19:27.600 --> 00:19:33.539 in the heavenly Zion. The day-to-day, of course, that happens in the grit and the grime of London, 00:19:33.539 --> 00:19:41.240 but we are citizens of the heavenly city of life, not death. We are in fellowship with the living God, 00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:49.839 not standing far off in fear. This is why you are actually able to strive for peace and holiness. 00:19:51.240 --> 00:19:59.099 We've been brought near. We don't stand at a distance. And, of course, it also provides a great 00:19:59.099 --> 00:20:04.839 incentive to keep short accounts with God, doesn't it? When you sin, you don't run from God. You don't 00:20:04.839 --> 00:20:13.179 leave sin unconfessed. You go to Him. Christ has brought you to His presence. He has brought you 00:20:13.179 --> 00:20:22.399 to God. So, don't run from Him. Don't keep Him at arm's length. Go to Him. It's also a reminder of why 00:20:22.399 --> 00:20:33.099 we have reasons for joy, even when life is difficult. Because they are eternal, the realities that Zion 00:20:33.099 --> 00:20:39.719 represents transcend our current moment. They transcend your experience, however trying or tough 00:20:39.719 --> 00:20:44.819 it might be. The picture of joy and celebration that the author describes here is one that we will 00:20:44.819 --> 00:20:49.919 experience fully when we get to glory, but the knowledge and the certainty of that in the future 00:20:49.919 --> 00:20:56.079 should lighten the load for us in the present while we wait. While we are running the race, while we are 00:20:56.079 --> 00:21:02.679 finding it difficult and struggling, the promise of that future glory reaches back into our experience in 00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:12.140 the here and now and changes it for us. And of course, we experience our presence in heaven 00:21:12.140 --> 00:21:18.640 in a very specific way when we gather like this on the Lord's Day as we do this evening. 00:21:20.200 --> 00:21:27.120 When the call to worship is given, we ascend into heaven. When John was in the Spirit on the Lord's 00:21:27.119 --> 00:21:33.839 Day, Revelation 1 verse 10, he was caught up in the heavenly places. Paul told the Ephesians that they 00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:40.239 were located in two places. Firstly, Ephesians 1 verse 1, they're in Ephesus. But secondly, he emphasizes 00:21:40.239 --> 00:21:46.179 that they are in Christ, who is in turn at the right hand of God in heaven. Because you are in Christ, 00:21:46.259 --> 00:21:53.399 you are where He is. And He is at the right hand of the Father in heaven. That is why our author told us 00:21:53.400 --> 00:22:01.000 back in 10.25 not to forsake the meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. Because to do so 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:08.480 would be to neglect going to heaven in worship. Wasn't that what he was so interested in beforehand? 00:22:09.400 --> 00:22:15.380 One commentator says this, chapter 10 verse 19, we have boldness to enter the Holy of Holies in heaven. 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:22.220 Because we have this boldness, let us draw near with true hearts, 10.22. When do we do this? 00:22:22.220 --> 00:22:29.380 On the Sabbath rest that remains for the people of God, 4 verse 9, which is to say, on the Lord's Day. 00:22:31.539 --> 00:22:38.160 When we celebrate public worship like this each week, we do not come to a mountain that can be touched, 00:22:39.100 --> 00:22:45.720 a mountain that strikes terror in our bones. But we do come to a mountain, a heavenly Zion, 00:22:46.039 --> 00:22:51.600 the heavenly Zion. At our call to worship, we ascend to the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:56.399 in the midst of a multitude of angels and the redeemed, into the presence of God himself. 00:22:57.439 --> 00:23:04.159 That is why this time together is, hands down, the most important part of your week. 00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:11.640 It's why you should do everything that you can to set aside the Lord's Day to be at worship. 00:23:12.600 --> 00:23:17.880 What could be more vital than coming into the presence of the living God, talking to him, 00:23:18.259 --> 00:23:22.060 hearing his voice, eating with him at his table as we did this morning? 00:23:22.059 --> 00:23:32.619 The answer is nothing. Well, there's the encouragement. Remember where you are under the new covenant, 00:23:32.940 --> 00:23:37.679 in Christ, in heaven. But there's also a warning. Did you see that? 00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:42.880 The warning. Here it is. Remember who God is. 00:23:44.519 --> 00:23:50.840 The encouragement is, remember where you are. The warning is, remember who God is. Verses 25 to 29. 00:23:50.940 --> 00:23:59.039 Whilst there are two mountains, there is still only one God. So, verse 25, see that you do not refuse him 00:23:59.039 --> 00:24:03.960 who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less 00:24:03.960 --> 00:24:09.500 will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, 00:24:09.559 --> 00:24:14.019 but now he has promised, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. 00:24:14.180 --> 00:24:17.619 This phrase, yet once more, indicates the removal of things that are shaken, 00:24:18.180 --> 00:24:23.099 that is, things that have been made, in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 00:24:23.099 --> 00:24:29.459 Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God 00:24:29.459 --> 00:24:35.959 acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. 00:24:39.559 --> 00:24:45.079 You may have heard unbelievers with a vague knowledge of the Bible will sometimes talk about the 00:24:45.079 --> 00:24:50.559 angry Old Testament God and the much more palatable New Testament version. 00:24:53.099 --> 00:24:58.579 That's all about Old Testament God for me. And then there's the idea that there is this 00:24:58.579 --> 00:25:05.139 more palatable, gentle Jesus in the New Testament. Now, Christians hear that, and then they'll try and 00:25:05.139 --> 00:25:08.859 explain that this is a distortion. Well, that's actually not how it is. You've misunderstood. 00:25:09.419 --> 00:25:15.679 But then they themselves talk about, well, there was the old covenant, and now we're under grace. 00:25:16.839 --> 00:25:22.259 And they talk about it in such a way that still sounds a bit like God chilled out between Malachi and 00:25:22.259 --> 00:25:31.740 Matthew. The author here sets us straight. Don't refuse him who is speaking. Don't refuse the Lord. 00:25:32.660 --> 00:25:37.319 Because if the Old Testament people were judged for their hard-hearted rejection of God, verse 25, 00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:44.619 much less will we under the new covenant. There is a great cosmic shakedown coming, he's saying, 00:25:45.160 --> 00:25:48.519 where only the kingdom that cannot be shaken, the kingdom of God, will remain. 00:25:48.519 --> 00:25:55.319 We should be hugely grateful that we belong to the enduring kingdom. But that doesn't mean that we're 00:25:55.319 --> 00:26:06.339 casual with God. God is awesome in majesty, supreme in power. He is, he tells us here, a consuming fire. 00:26:07.160 --> 00:26:16.599 Our God is a consuming fire. You don't muck about with fire. We must worship him acceptably. 00:26:16.599 --> 00:26:23.199 Now, of course, this looks different in different cultures. There isn't one way or one style that we 00:26:23.199 --> 00:26:32.319 worship. But it can't mean anything goes. These verses make it clear that we can worship God 00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:38.559 unacceptably. That's why the Westminster Divines gave us the directory of worship. That's why we have the 00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:43.740 regulative principle of worship, that the elements of the worship service come from Scripture. We do what 00:26:43.740 --> 00:26:50.259 God tells us to do when we gather. But here's the keynote. Did you see it? The keynote of acceptable 00:26:50.259 --> 00:26:56.680 worship. Whatever other cultural elements there may be, here is the keynote of acceptable worship, 00:26:57.059 --> 00:26:58.799 reverence, and awe. 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:10.799 We are drawn into the presence of the living God. We can call him our Father, but we mustn't confuse 00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:18.599 intimacy with informality. Our closeness to God doesn't remove our need for reverence, 00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:25.139 especially when we gather in this context. You can draw near to God anywhere, anytime, 00:27:25.419 --> 00:27:33.859 and you can speak to him as candidly and bluntly and with the most heartfelt cries imaginable. 00:27:34.879 --> 00:27:40.079 Read the Psalms. It's all there. But when we gather for worship, we don't do it casually. 00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:47.199 Our service is structured in order to reflect this. God calls us into his presence at the call to worship. 00:27:47.379 --> 00:27:52.500 We can't just wander in to his presence. He must call us, and he calls us at the beginning. We sing 00:27:52.500 --> 00:27:59.899 songs that focus on him more than on how we feel. We confess our sin. We allow his word to govern what 00:27:59.900 --> 00:28:09.580 we do. He tells us how he wants things to be. God really cares about how we approach him. Don't take 00:28:09.580 --> 00:28:19.620 him lightly. Reverence and awe. That's the warning. Remember who God is and live in light of his character. 00:28:21.340 --> 00:28:28.259 So get up and after godliness. Strengthen your weak knees. Pursue peace and holiness in relationship 00:28:28.259 --> 00:28:37.119 with Christ. And do this because we have an awesome and majestic God. Let's pray.